


A YouTube Series

by orphan_account



Category: Life Is Strange 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Cheating, Freeform, Friends to Lovers, Graduation, M/M, Mukbang, Recreational Drug Use, Tattoos, VidCon YouTube Convention, YouTube, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:02:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 39,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22369915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The five times Sean pretended to not be in love with Finn on camera and the one time he doesn't.orSean has a YouTube channel that grows along with his love for the guy that slept with his girlfriend behind his back.
Relationships: Sean Diaz/Finn
Comments: 48
Kudos: 203





	1. She's Cheating! (Not clickbait)

The first video isn’t even on his channel and a part of him hates that it’s even that it’s a video at all. He’s not into putting too much of his personal life on the internet. Things that happen off YouTube should stay off YouTube, making views out of personal things isn’t really his thing.

Lyla on the other hand lives for it.

“Alright fellow Witches! Welcome back!” Lyla said all to happily to the camera Sean is being forced to hold. “Today, is a different vlog for me here in the channel. Where it isn’t really about me at all.”

“But you will make it about you.” Sean points out behind the camera.

Lyla only rolls her eyes but doesn’t take her eyes off the road. “Dude, don’t act like your life isn’t my life and my life isn’t your life. When someone cheats on my friend, I have to take action!”

Sean wants to pull the camera away. Though he had reluctantly finally given in to Lyla about making a video about this it still feels raw.

To his 30k subscribers, they all know about the ‘love of his life’ Jenn Murphy. She has her own make-up channel with 200k subscribers. They had done several videos together as a couple: Girlfriend does my make up. Boyfriend narrates make-up routine. Trying to teach girlfriend to play Fortnite. Girlfriend vs brother: He didn’t hold back!

As far as everyone was concerned everything was okay. Hell...for Sean, he also thought everything was fine. But clearly they hadn’t been.

“Why don’t you tell everyone what we found out this morning?” Lyla said looking at Sean. She knows he doesn’t really want to and she quickly adds. “Or do you want me too?”

It’s just a question but for some reason, Sean thinks it’s actually a warning. If Lyla tells it, he’s not sure what lies she say just to make it interesting.

“What’s to say...” Sean said shrugging. He puts the camera down on his lap, knowing he’s just filming Lyla’s lap. 

“Are you okay?” She asked quietly. Even if it’s not loud enough to be caught on camera she’ll add subtitles.

He nods his approval before continuing. “Last night she was upset about something. I asked her but she didn’t want to talk about it. But she went to the bathroom and then came back before deciding to leave for the night.”

“See! That’s the first red flag! No Netflix and Chill!” Lyla said trying to lighten the mood.

“Yeah sure...” Sean said laughing and rolling his eyes. “So she leaves and I go to brush my teeth...uh...because I’m going to bed.” For some reason, he’s starting to get embarrassed and blushed while Lyla laughed.

“You and your perfect teeth, guys, Sean used to bring a toothbrush to school with him to brush after lunch.”

“God! I knew you were going to say that.” Sean said not able to help himself from laughing. “Dude, it’s not my fault I want perfect teeth and you had braces since middle school. Do you want me to tell the story or not!”

“Okay, okay. Go ahead.”

“So yeah...uh, I go to brush my teeth and she left her phone on the counter. And there’s a miss call from someone named Finn.”

“Now guys!” Lyla reached out and picked up the camera off of Sean’s lap, turning it around to face Sean. “We know Finn! We go to school in a small town where everyone knows everyone and that small town bullshit and trust me when I say we know who Finn is!”

“Yeah,” Sean said nodding his head. “We uh...we’ve met him before.” He looked at Lyla a small smile on his face before he laughed. “But uh...I don’t think we should say how we know him, but we know him.”

Behind the camera, Lyla laughed. “Way to go Sean! Making it sound like we buy drugs for him or something.” She says it teasing and Sean blushed, stumbling over a response while she laughs at him. Because though she won’t say it on camera and only play it as a joke, that is exactly how they know Finn.

They buy weed from him. Well...Lyla has bought weed from him. Sean had always been nervous to buy his own weed and just left it to her to do it.

“Anyway!” Sean said getting back on track. He is feeling a little better after joking with her and he’s sure it shows. “I unlock her phone-”

‘Whoa, you have her code?”

“Yes....well I’m supposed to. But she changed it. So I couldn’t get in using the code. But I think she forgot that I also have my fingerprint saved.”

“Dude...why do you have her code and fingerprint! Are you like...a possessive boyfriend!?”

“No!’ Sean snapped taking the camera from her and facing it to her. “My phone also has her fingerprint saved and log in. There’s supposed to be no secret between us.”

The hurt feeling was starting to surface again and he swallowed hard. “So I unlock it and her message our unlocked and...she sent Finn a nude of her top. I wanted to look more but she pinged her phone, looking for it. So I locked it, pretended to find it for her and handed it back and...here we are.”

“Here we are,” Lyla said nodding. “We’re going to confront Finn! Because if Sean confronts Jenn, he’s just going to crack under the pressure of his love for her.”

Sean can already hear the ‘oof’ sound effect that she is going to add there and Lyla just laughs at his face.

*

Sean is almost painfully aware of how much cooler Finn is to him. Even just standing with friends smoking he’s cool, with the patches on his jeans and denim vest. He creates a perfect picture of himself by standing by a sign that says No Smoking with the words Without Me spray painted in black.

A part of him tells him he shouldn’t blame Jenn for cheating on him with Finn. Hell, he would cheat on Jenn with Finn.

Wait-

Sean shook his head before looking past Lyla who had mostly been talking to the camera as they looked at Finn in the park.

“Cut,” Sean said loud enough for her to hear.

Giving him a small look, she turned off the camera before giving him her undivided attention. “Okay...if you really want to go back on your word and not do this, I won’t complain too much, but you’re buying me more film! And I get to throw eggs at you for content instead.”

“No,” Sean said with an annoyed sigh. “I’m not going back on my word. Just...Let me talk to him alone first. You can film from here, but that’s all.”

“Come on dude, that’s-”

“The only thing your getting,” Sean said already stepping out of the car.

She could hear her huffing but also caving and adjusting herself in her seat to film again. She would probably be narrating the whole thing and he took a deep breath, trying to prepare himself for this conversation.

He approached slowly, hands stuffed in his hoodie trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Of course to a drug dealer that’s a known look so though it still makes him jump, he really shouldn’t be surprised when Finn approaches him as if they are old friends.

“Hey, there laddie.” Finn greets him with a smile, putting an arm around his shoulder. “No need to be nervous...though I guess it’s not every day _you’re_ the one buying.”

Sean blushed because something about Finn recognizes him from creepily hovering around when Lyla buys makes something in his stomach twist.

“Yeah uh...” He shrugged Finn off, the male not looking hurt by the action but curious. “I’m not here...for that.” Though he’s sure it would help. “I wanted to talk to you about Jenn. Jenn Murphy.”

The name brings recognition to Finn’s face and he steps back a little to look at Sean. “What about her?”

For some reason, Sean feels so awkward and he kicks some dirt looking off to Lyla who is sitting in the car. God...she’s catching this all on film. “Um...how do you know her?”

Finn lets out a small chuckle, shrugging. “Look, uh...I’m not sure what this is about. But if you got a crush on her go ahead, she don’t bite, unless you ask anyway. I don’t claim her or nothing. We just fuckin’ around.”

Oof. That’s all his mind can produce.

“How...long have you guys been doing that?”

“You askin’ a lot of questions...Reason for that?”

Sean avoids Finn’s eyes embarrassed and hurt and sick to his stomach. “She’s my girlfriend.” He finally spits out.

The air around them seems to get colder and he looked at Finn. The older male didn’t seem so relax anymore and instead looked tense and concerned. “Girlfriend?”

“Yeah.” Sean nodded before pulling out his phone. Proof would probably help this and he pulls up his photo album to show Finn all of the couple selfies they’ve taken together. It’s kind of cringy because he has a whole fucking album just dedicated to them but for once he doesn’t feel embarrassed just sad and hurt and confused about it all.

He swipes to one very romantic picture of the two of them, Jenn kissing his cheek with a smile, and Sean has an equally as big smile. “Shit man...” Finn said pulling out his own phone. “She told me she was single.”

Just when he thinks it can’t get any more painful, Finn shows him text messages. Back and forth from Jenn that aren’t all PG. Most are pretty rated R...with pictures.

For some reason, Finn isn’t as shy as he should be as he scrolls right past his own dick pic like it’s nothing and Sean has to look away.

“Shit, sorry dude,” Finn said with a shrug. “If I had known she was datin’ I wouldn’t have done nothing with her.”

The honesty in Finn’s voice just makes it worse somehow. The tone alone is dripping with pity and it just makes Sean feel worse. He’s wallowing in his own self-pity that he doesn’t even hear what Finn says.

“Huh?” He looked at Finn, who has a determined look on his face.

“I said, let’s go confront her.”

“Huh?!” Sean says again without meaning too but this time it’s louder and surprising.

“Yeah, I was supposed to meet her later. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like that shit. If you don’t confront people who do mess up shit like that, they just keep doing that shit. Addicts... addicted to doing what they want and not giving a shit about anyone else. She gotta know that that shit ain’t cool.”

He never really heard Finn speak much besides ‘what can I get for your lassie?’ and ‘ya’ll come back now ya hear!’ both in obnoxious accents. He does it for Lyla because every time she just laughs.

This has to be the most Finn has ever talked to him and honestly, Sean is sure he could listen to Finn talk forever.

He’s not really sure what to say until his phone vibrates in his pocket and he remembers Lyla waiting. He pulls out his phone, looking at his text before an idea comes to him. She would love this...it sort of makes him feel shitty but he looks at Finn. “Um...do you mind being on camera?”

*

He explains to Finn who he is and who Lyla is and confessing that he’s a YouTuber always get different responses. His dad wasn’t all too impressed but supportive as always, Daniel was over the moon with excitement and Sean had never felt cooler to his younger brother then when he started and got the subscriber plaques from YouTube. 

He was happy to be getting Daniel vibes from Finn when he told him, and he was more than happy to be on camera, already seeing where Sean was going. “This is what she needs,” Finn said nodding his head as he followed Sean to Lyla’s car. “Lessons don’t set in unless there's an audience.”

Finn is into it, and it’s the energy that Sean knows Lyla will love. The two already know each other, and Lyla is beyond happy to have Finn on board.

Finn shows her most of the text messages between him and Jenn, now that there is a camera careful about the R rated pictures not being seen. “I’m okay with my dick been seen, but even for a cheater, she don’t deserve her nudes being leaked.”

Jeez...the respect of it all makes Sean feel a little weird.

“Dude! This was the day she couldn’t come out to skate because she was visiting her grandfather in the hospital.” Lyla said zooming in on the date. “We’re going have to blur this out.”

Sean can see why. On the screen, Finn and Jenn are texting back and forth about how Jenn wants to suck Finn off.

A bite of him is jealous and for some reason, he’s remembered the picture of Finn’s dick. Maybe it’s his artist's mind that can look at something and remember a lot of details but for some goddamn reason, he can see the dick perfectly. Hard in Finn’s hand with a flushed tip that’s wet.

Sean imagines it in Jenn’s mouth. He grits his teeth when another thought crosses his mind.

“So, I don’t know about you, but as I said, I’m supposed to meet her later,” Finn said taking the phone away and looking at Sean and Lyla, not looking at the camera, jeez, he’s a pro at this. “I’m Sean hides in the back seat while I confront Jenn about cheatin’. And when I give the single Sean comes out and boom, she’s gotta face us both together. The door unlocked to let her go whenever she pleases.”

“Yes!” Lyla said loving the plan already. “I have a camera for my car, we’ll put it in yours! If it’s dark enough and placed correctly, she won’t even see it!”

Finn and Lyla plan it all out and Sean just sits and listens. There’s a part of him that knows this isn’t right. The side that’s always supposed to be the responsible one, that’s been pretty much hammered into him from being the oldest child to a single father.

But for once, he shuts it up and looks at the two. “Let’s do it.”

*

It’s just dark enough in the car that even Sean can barely see the camera that Lyla had mounted in Finn’s car. It usually goes in her car when she’s vlogging and driving. 

They pull up to Jenn’s place and Finn shoots off a text before looking at Sean in the rearview mirror. “You look nervous sweetie.”

Nervous...Sean hopes Finn can’t see the sudden flush on his cheeks from Finn pointing that out. “Yeah...I mean...what if she sees.”

“Nah she won’t. Here, put this blanket over ya.”

He reached back, helping Sean pull over a blanket. “Sorry if it smells.”

It does. Like usual boy funk and stale weed and Sean can only imagine what Finn uses this for. He curls up in the backseat with the blanket over his head.

They sit silently for a while before the door handle to the passenger side is pulled and Finn unlocks it.

“Hey babe!” Jenn said happily...almost all too happy. She shouldn’t be here in Finn’s car and it only makes him angry that either of them are here at all.

He can’t see but he can hear and he’s sure it’s a kiss that she’s just given Finn...though maybe not the one she wanted.

“What’s wrong?” Jenn asked sitting back in the seat.

“Nothing babe just...something on my mind,” Finn said as cool as he can. Which isn’t hard.

“Actually,” Finn said from the front seat. “I was playin’ would you rather with Cassidy earlier and she said somethin’ that got me thinkin’, do all girls think the same? Even Hans picked the same question and you know her and Cass, they barely get along at all.

Beside him, Jenn laughed and Sean feels his stomach clench. She’s met his friends...enough to know that Hans and Cass don’t get along. How long...had it been going along? How invested had Finn been with her. “What was the question?”

“Alright, so pick. Would you rather, show your tits to a bar full of people,” Finn pauses for dramatic effect. Sean can picture him licking his lips before continuing. “Or tell Sean you’re going to visit your grandfather in the hospital but instead come over and suck my dick.”

Even...Sean’s a little surprised, and by the silence that follows Jenn is as well. That’s the cue that he needs and he sits up in the back while Finn turns on the light in his car, revealing him to Jenn who looks shocked...and caught. She’s speechless and shuts her gaping mouth to look away.

Finn continues to look at her. “Anything to say, babe?”

She doesn’t say anything and instead opens the car door and leaves, slamming it shut behind her. Sean feels a little guilty...but at least he doesn’t feel hurt anymore.

“You alright sweetie?” At Finn’s voice, he looked up to see him looking at him from the rearview mirror and their eyes meet.

“No,” Sean said sitting back. He can already hear Lyla coming over before the car door is opened.

“I got just the thing to lift your spirits,” Finn said as Lyla turns off the recording from the camera in the car. With a wave of his hand, he pulled out a joint from somewhere and waves it around. “Let’s get you lifted.”

It’s definitely what he needs and they pass the joint around in Finn’s car. Lyla and Finn do most of the talking, about the look on Jenn’s face and how she hadn’t expected to ever get caught. They even play the footage back but Sean just sits back and watches it.

He flicks the roach out the window and exhaling through his nose before finally speaking. “I don’t want you to post this.”

“Dude, come on!” Lyla said turning around. “She deserves it.”

“So...” Sean said with a shrug. He looked at the two of them before looking down at his hand. “I...changed my mind.”

He hadn’t gotten what he wanted out of this as he had hoped. A reason as to why she would do this. Why she would cheat on him after a three-year relationship?

He didn’t wait for them to say anything and slipped out of the back seat, and just leaning against Finn’s car. He expects Lyla to come out to comfort him, but it’s actually Finn who comes out. Something about the man who had been fucking his girlfriend behind his back comforting him is such a fucking power move. For anyone else, it would have rubbed him the wrong way but Finn seems to make it so sincere. 

“I know it hurts sweetie. Don’t need to know the relationship between you two to know that it’s going to stin’, for a while. And I’m sorry that I’m apart of it too.”

“Not your fault.” Sean shrugged, putting his hands in his hoodie pocket. “You didn’t know...”

“Still...I’m sorry. You seem like a decent guy sweetheart. And out of everyone in the world, I can tell you’re the last person this should have ever happen’ too.” Finn pressed against him, the warmth easing the tension from Sean like a warm shower. He wants to close his eyes and enjoy it fully.

“Thanks.”

Finn smiled before he stood and tapped against the window of his car before Lyla stepped out. “Well, beauties. Post the video or don’t. Either way, you two both got a subscriber in me now.”

“Thanks, Finn,” Lyla said with a smile before rocking on her feet. “Um...while we’re here...can I get a some-”

“On the house sweetie.” He pulls out two tossing them one each. Sean catches his against his chest. He doesn’t even need to look to feel that it’s a pretty good amount and he curled his fingers against the palm full. “Ya’ll come back now ya hear!”

“Bye Finn,” Lyla said with a chuckle and Sean gave him a small smile.

“Bye...”

“Chin up, sweetheart. It can only go up from here.”

For some reason, Sean really believes that.

*

Despite her begging, Sean doesn’t budge and Lyla doesn’t post it. Instead posting a vlog about how many eggs she can throw at Sean as he tries to solve a Rubix club. So...it’s safe to say they spend too much money on eggs.

There in the middle of uploading it when Jenn post her own video on her channel: We broke up.

It’s not something he had even thought about mentioning it on his own channel and is really curious as to why she’s the one posting about it. They hadn’t spoken about what happened in Finn car and had honestly just thought about mention it offhandedly during one of his videos...or maybe never at all.

While their egg video uploads, they watch Jenn’s video.

It can almost be mistaken for a YouTube apology video, with Jenn without make-up and crying, getting up and walking off because it hurts too much.

She waits just enough to the five-minute mark in YouTube for it to be counted in views to finally spill what she’s been trying to say.

“Sean cheated on me.”

Lyla paused the video and Sean just sits back in his chair as he stared at the girl he loved. He fucking loved her...her red hair, her soft skin, her sweet lips, and nice laugh. She’s the reason he passed gen-ed math his first year in college.

“Cancel the upload,” Sean said and Lyla jumped up just to do that.

“Yeah, it’s time to read some receipt, bitches.”

Sean scrolled down to the comments, not surprised to see that it is filled with tons of support for her, because why wouldn’t it. Her word against his and why would her devoted fans suspect anything foul from their queen.

Lyla starts editing the video and he just spends time scrolling through the comments. The hate for him is almost overpowering and just as Lyla is going to take the computer away from him he spots something.

“Wait!” He said pulling the laptop from her hands as he zeroes in on one comment. From a greenphilospher.

[Keep your head up sweetie, don’t let her get to you]

To anyone else, they would think this was directed to Jenn with just a misplacement of pronoun. Some people even respond to the comment and agree that Jenn should keep her head up and fuck Sean, but Sean can’t keep his eyes off the comment and the warmth in his stomach that it leaves.

“It’s going to take me a day to finish,” Lyla said as Sean gets ready to head to his own place. “Maybe you should make your own statement.”

He plans to do just that. He goes home and streams on Twitch, where he usually just draws instead of what he usually does on YouTube.

A lot of his chat is full of haters from Jenn, with his mods getting rid of anyone who is a little too hurtful but he ignores it, as he draws.

Someone donates five dollars with a comment.

[What is this piece called?]

Sean looks up at the chat before down at the picture of Finn that he has drawn. Of him standing there with the patches in his jeans and the vest and the sign that says don’t smoke without me and he finishes up drawing the crinkle around Finn’s eyes as he smile.

“It’s called the Loyalty of Strangers.” He zoomed out to give them all a good view of his work. He was probably staring at it a little too much but even just looking at the picture it seems to come alive and he gets lost in the idea of Finn.

There is already enough detail but Sean can’t help but find more to add.


	2. Try Not to Laugh Challenge sent Finn to the ER!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, this is my first time writing a Life is Strange Fanfic so I'm happy you guys seem to be enjoying it so far. I changed something in the first chapter, just Sean and Jenn's subscriber count to be lower than I originally had it.
> 
> Anyway enjoy!

The second video is on his channel. 

The YouTube community was abuzz with the news about Jenn and Sean. With Jenn lying about Sean and then the truth coming out only a day later, every YouTube gossip rag had something to say about it. With everyone ready to throw Sean under the bus it was a little refreshing to have the tables quickly turned onto Jenn with Lyla's video came out.

Though it was pretty clear that Sean was the victim, he did not come out completely free. There were people who thought even though Jenn cheated he shouldn't have allowed a video to be made about it (his dad was one of those people). He always tried to avoid the comment section but this video he could not help it. Both of their comment sections were lit with fans and stans and Sean tried his best to keep away from it all. Really just wanting it all to be behind him. But he couldn’t help but read the dreadful comment sections. Some of it was accusing him of starting drama by filming the confrontation. Others just pitying him and feeling sorry that it even happen. He expected both of those, a good number of those and he was fine with them.

What he didn't expect were the request?

[Dude, I know Finn stole your girl but you should bring him to your channel]

[Finn is so cool! You guys should be friends]

[Wow, Finn is super nice]

[You should do a video with Finn to spite Jenn!]

[I want Finn again!]

Jeez, he was on one video not even on his channel and everyone seemed to love him right off the back.

Not that Sean couldn’t see why people wanted him back. Finn had been sweet and nice about the whole situation. Sean could understand why they wanted to see him again...but wouldn’t it be weird to do a video with him.

“Dude, stop reading the comments,” Lyla said snatching his phone from his hand as she skated by him.

He let her take it, his hands dropping onto his lap. They were supposed to be skating, taking a small break from YouTube. “She deleted all of her social media...” Sean pointed out as he stood up, skating after her.

“Dude who cares! That video alone jumped your subscriber count so much!” Lyla helpfully pointed out. “Did you not notice that.”

Sean had noticed that but had brushed it aside. “Dude...they aren’t here for me.” They are probably here for the drama, to see what’s going to happen next and he was sure as soon as they realized it was over they would be leaving just as quickly as they came.

“Everyone just wants more drama.” Sean pointed out. “That’s why people subscribe. Or probably Finn...”

A charmer on and off the camera.

“Well, give the people what they want.” Lyla looked back at him with a smile. “I saw him the other day, he asked about you.”

Sean can feel his neck almost break with how quickly he turns to look at her and he almost falls off his skateboard when his wheel hits a rock. “W-what?”

“I was buying, though since being on camera he’s been easing up on the deals, which is lame. But he wanted to know if you were okay.”

Just the idea of Finn asking about him is enough to make his stomach twist. “W-what did you say?”

“Dude, I told him the truth. That you’ve been crying in your pillow for weeks.”

“Lyla-”

“Here,” She held out a piece of paper. “Text him.”

He took Finn’s number almost too carefully to be normal. It’s just a piece of paper Sean, chill. His mind raced with what he should text first. “What should I say?”

“Tell him you’re okay.” She skated away towards one of the ramps and Sean kicks up his skateboard. That sounds like a good idea.

So he does it.

_ I’m okay. _

_ This is Sean by the way _

Welp, he’s already off to a great start and isn’t too surprised when Finn doesn’t text him back...at least right away.

He’s in the middle of attempting a kickflip when his phone vibrates in his pocket.

_ Hey! _

_ Sweetie!  _

_ I’m glad to hear that! _

_ Lyla said that you aren’t selling anymore _

_ Yeah, for the time being _

_ Lots of eyes on me now. _

_ You made me famous sweetie _

_ Sorry. _

He wants to ask other than selling weed how does Finn makes money but instead he ask something else.

_ Do you want to make a video with me? _

_ On my channel, _

_ Not Lyla’s. _

_ You mean... _

_ DiazGames!! _

_ Lol _

_ Yeah dude. _

_ Come enter the den _

*

While Lyla vlogs and Jenn does beauty, Sean is a simple YouTube gamer.

DiazGames had just been an escape after he went away to college. He hadn’t thought he would miss his brother barging in his room and his dad always down his neck at times but his first year at college he didn’t have a roommate and he was more lonely then he had ever expected.

It was just a way to keep him busy when he wasn’t in class. For the most part, he had a pretty set in schedule, posting at least once every week.

It was just something to do, he never really thought he would get past 100 subscribers but here he was with 30k.

“Hey Wolf Pack, welcome back to the den!” Sean said as calmly as he could, though for some reason he couldn’t help the blush on his face. This was the third time he tried to do the intro but he just couldn’t get the heat of his cheeks out of his face with Finn sitting next to him. “Today I have a special guest!”

Lyla would insert fake cheering for him as he turned to Finn who smiled and gave a peace sign to the camera. “Hey, it’s good to be here. I’ve never been in a YouTuber’s house before. You gotta a nice set up.”

It’s a simple compliment because really it’s just a simple set up. He had started in his dorm room when he first started but now in his last year, he had his own place apartment.

“So guys, today, we’re going to do Try Not to Laugh Challenge, because we could all use some laughter now than ever.”

“Awe sweetie,” Finn clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You’re better off without her then you are with her.” 

The comment actually catches him off guard, and if Lyla doesn’t add in the loading symbol for YouTube over his head he’s sure she’ll probably just cut this part out. But he doubts it as he lets out a scoffing laugh, ducking his head. “Yeah...I mean I’m sure. Uh...let’s get started.”

It’s completely awkward at first. The first four videos aren’t funny, and Lyla will probably cut them out but it’s only after the video where the boy types in 420 into his microwave after claiming he is calling the weed that Finn lets out a chuckle.

“I knew that one would make you laugh.” Sean can’t help but laugh.

“What can I say. I’m a simple man with simple humor.” Finn’s smile as bright as ever. “Plus April 20th is my birthday.”

That get’s a laugh out of Sean because of course that’s Finn’s birthday. The green philosopher was of course born on the very symbol of weed.

It gets easier after that. When a video comes up about kids Naruto running across campus Sean allows himself to dive into a story about how he at one point did that in high school, Finn gets a real kick out of that.

When a weird video of someone sticking a rubber chicken up to a ceiling fan to make it make weird sounds come on Finn hums to himself.

“What?” Sean asked looking at him, keeping his eyes on the video, wondering if he should pause it.

“I’ve always wondered...what it would feel like to stick your finger up on the ceiling fan.”

They continued to watch the video, which isn’t really funny so Sean decides to speak up. “I’m sure it hurts.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it does too,” Finn admits nodding his head absently. “But...how much you reckon?”

They look at each other for a moment before Sean pauses the video.

It’s a bad idea and Sean knows it but when Finn bounces on his toes for a moment before shoving his finger up to the ceiling fan and cries out in pain as it breaks Sean can’t help the laugh that comes out at just how crazy Finn is. Learning from Lyla, he films a little of it, the drive to the hospital, Finn getting his finger to reset while he sweet talk’s the nurse before heading back to Sean’s place to smoke before resume filming.

“Hey, guys! As you can see it’s now dark and Finn’s finger is broken! The try not to laugh challenge has never been this dangerous.”

Finn laughed at that and Sean isn’t sure if he likes the sound of Finn’s voice more or his laughter. 

“Hey, if this is a challenge. Should we be doing somethin’ when you lose?” Finn asked, tongue and cheek, before Sean can restart the compilation video.

He almost doesn't catch that Finn says he's the one going to lose and he gives Finn a side glance as he laughed.

“Like what?” This isn’t his first Try Not to Laugh with a guest. He’s done two with Daniel and those had silly challenges and with Jenn, whoever wins gets to pick what’s for dinner. He’s not sure he has anything for Finn.

“How about...the loser has to do one thing for the winner.” Finn offers up.

His smile is contagious and Sean for the life of him cannot see how he is going to win this. Especially now that he’s high.

He stops filming. “We have to do this later when I’m sober. If we do it now, I’m going to lose and that’s not fair.”

“Alright sweetie, whatever you say.” Finn chuckled, not upset at all by Sean’s words and leans back in his chair. “So we wait till you land? What do you want to do till then?”

Something crosses Sean’s mind but he pushes it aside. “Are you hungry?”

They order food and talk. It starts off mostly about Jenn, the only thing that really brings them together. “I guess...we’re math class sweethearts,” Sean said sitting on his couch waiting for the Thai food they order. “We met in our gen-ed math. I was failing and she offered to help. It went on from there.”

“Damn...that sucks she could throw it away so easily.”

Easily throw it away for Finn...Sean could understand that.

"How come you guys didn't share a place?" Finn asked.

Its an innocent question, a question he's sure anyone would ask. He and Jenn had been dating for three years and still lived in separate places. Sean could only shrug as his answer. He and Jenn had argued about it many times before. "Never...uh a good time." It's a lame excuse and Finn only hums, maybe too high to ask anything else about it but instead moves on.

“We been fuckin’ around for maybe six months,” Finn confesses and Sean cannot help the racing of his mind. What had happened six months ago that changed things? Had he done something...had something happened between them that he hadn’t noticed.

Nothing stuck out to him...he couldn’t even think of any of the signs and wondered how he could be so blind. Though he can’t think of anything in the past six months something does come to mind.

“She was upset the night I found out,” Sean asked looking at Finn. “She was upset...because you weren’t answering.”

With a sigh, Finn sat back against the couch as he looked at Sean. “Somethin’...was startin’ to feel off.”

“Off?”

“Yeah...I’m gonna be honest Sean, I liked her. Really liked her. I'm not really into the labels and shit but...uh somethin' about her wanted me to maybe...keep her as something more than just fuck buddies. She was starting to have a place here.” He put poked at Sean’s chest, right at the center and Sean frowned. That hadn’t crossed his mind...Finn’s relationship with Jenn being anything other than just sex.

“But it didn’t feel like a two-way street.” Finn let his hand rest against Sean’s stomach before he moved it all together. “I should of saw it comin’. Jenn...I know the type. College girl, they see a guy like me...sellin’, face tattoo, no real place to stay just couch surfin' all that shit and it’s fun. But nothin’ else.” Finn sighed sitting back against his couch. “But that’s my fault. Always...getting fuckin’ obsessed with people. People like her. People like you.”

People like me?

He wanted to touch more on that but his phone alerted him of the food arriving. He got up to get it, not paying attention to the delivery guy or how much of a tip he handed over. His mind elsewhere.

It never occurred to him that Finn could have gotten hurt at all.

"Alright! Now that the foods here, let's talk about something more fun! How did you get into this YouTube shit?"

Sean chuckled, putting the food down on his coffee table. "I wouldn't say it's a fun story. More like a pretty...pathetic story anyway."

Of course, Finn didn't see it that way. He thought the whole thing was 'pretty adorable sweetie' and with the topic of their family up, Sean told him about his father and brother, avoiding touching on his mother. Finn seemed to do the same, touching briefly on the fact that he was the youngest brother of four but didn't talk more about it. They went back to the safety of YouTube, talking about what Finn usually watched and what Sean usually watched.

"Dude, how can you watch that? Doesn't the sound of chewing make you sick?"

"Nah! It actually relaxin'. Seriously, you should watch this woman put away food, she like a bottomless pit! Dude! You should do a mukbang!"

"Dude, no way. I want to stay away from drama. The YouTube mukbang community is just filled with drama."

They talked what seemed like forever, Sean far beyond sober at this point and he didn't want it to end, but they had to continue filming.

"Are you finished?"

"Oh yeah sweetie! Time to get back to work?"

With a nod, Sean cleaned up before they headed back to recording.

*

It was pretty late he wanted to at least get recording done now and luckily Finn didn't seem to be in a rush to leave anytime soon.

They move onto a different video, All the Best Vines and since Sean's pretty sure he's seen all the best one he should be able to do this flawlessly.

But there are just some Vines that he can’t help but laugh at. The warped ‘That’s my opinion!’ clip from some show he can’t place luckily has them both laughing. Finn laughs at the small husky puppy saying fuck instead of barking like Sean is sure he expected. They both say yeet at the exact same time as the clip does but they lose it when the old woman does it in the next clip. Sean can’t help his laughter when the drunk woman gets water poured on her and her response is just a simple hello. Finn just responds that ‘it be like that sometimes’.

When it comes to the white fox laughing Finn has to pause the video. “Dude! You have to get a fox as a pet.”

“What?”

“Yeah! That would be such a cool pet, though, I do hear that they like to dig-”

It’s clear Finn is easily distracted. He pauses a lot in the video just to add some input. Sometimes it’s rambling with no clear end, other times he adds his own input about when he was a waiter or even though the song Sail has played already three times in different clips, he’s never actually heard the song.

Not all of that is needed, Sean’s sure Finn thinks YouTubers have to add things all the time, but he doesn’t have the heart to tell him that most of it will be cut out beside the funny part. Instead, he can’t help but find it a little enduring to just listen to Finn talk.

Usually Sean doesn’t say much to add on to what Finn is saying until the clip of a guy waking up a guy in a bunk bed only to find out there is another guy right behind him sleeping with his friend cause Sean to add something to what Finn is saying.

“Gotta hate with that happens,” Finn said shaking his head but doesn’t stop the video.

Sean wants him to say more on it. “What do you mean? When you accidentally walk in on your friend and his boyfriend?”

“No, when your friend walks in on you and your boyfriend.”

“You...date guys?”

Finn smiles at him. “Yeah well, I don’t really care for the gender thing. I just see...people you know.”

Sean doesn’t have anything to say and they continue as if nothing had happened. They get through the video and it must be because of Finn’s new information about not having an attraction to any certain gender that Sean is able to win.

“Well guys, as you can see, I’m better at not laughing, probably because of my broken heart but I won so-”

“What do you want me to do?” Finn asked, there’s no hidden meaning but it still makes Sean flush a little.

“C-come...” He coughs, shaking his embarrassment away while Finn laughs. He’s going to have to tell Lyla to take that part out. “Come back. Could you come back and do another video?”

“Of course dude!” Finn smiled. “Jeez, I thought I was going to have to do something weird, like eat a bug.”

Sean smiled looking at the camera. “Alright wolves! You heard it here, I’ll see you next time where Finn will eat a bug-”

“Wait you’re not ser-”

“-Until then, I’ll see you the next full moon. Aawoo!” Sean howled.

When he was done howling, he noticed Finn was smiling at him. “Aw, that was cute...swe-buddy.”

“Shut up...” Sean nudging Finn.

They chill a little while afterward but then Finn had to leave and Sean sent the footage to Lyla to edit. When she’s not filming her own, she’s screaming on Twitch about editing Sean’s footage. Sean, of course, watches sometimes and just watching her work can sometimes feel like watching someone create a masterpiece.

Sometimes they have a meta moment where Sean streams his drawing while watching Lyla’s stream at the exact same time. Which is what he decided to do this time, while he draws. Usually, he draws whatever comes to mind, little doodles of anime character or wolves but sometimes when he wants to tease a video he draws the thumbnail for his upcoming video. Now he’s drawing his cartoon version of Finn and himself laughing.

He usually just zones out when he draws, usually whatever on is just background noise so he doesn’t really hear Lyla until he noticed his chat going a little crazy at the corner of his eye.

[I ship it!]

[That was so cute!]

[Sinn! Fean! I can’t decide!!!]

Sean blinked before looking at Lyla’s stream, finally paying attention.

“Dude, I’m calling it! These two will be married!!” Lyla laughed good naturally. She doesn’t mean it harshly, he knows that, but the blush on his cheek and neck feels like sunburn. “Wouldn’t it be crazy if they started dating! That would be insane!”

Sean picked up his phone quickly calling Lyla and hearing it ring in the stream. “Oh! Look whos calling, I’ll be back guys.”

She walks away and Sean walks away from his stream as well, he doesn’t want any of this to be heard. “Dude, what are you doing?” Sean snapped.

“What?” Lyla asked pretending to be innocent.

“I’m watching your stream! You’re making it so weird.” Just talking about it made him want to blush. “Stop...saying weird things about it.”

“I’m just kidding Sean.” Lyla laughed. “Relax, I’ll edit it normally...I’m just teasing Sean...but really dude...have you seen the raw footage you sent me.”

He hadn’t. He didn’t usually, assuming she would take out anything boring and edit anything to make it funnier.

“I will...”

And he did.

And honestly, he thought about telling her to stop editing and delete the video. How had he not noticed this?

Whenever Finn spoke, Sean couldn’t take his eyes off of him. When Finn called him sweetie or sweetheart Sean has a blush now that matches the one in his video. There was an echo of heat from where Finn had placed a hand on his thigh at one part in the video.

It seemed flirty all the way through until suddenly it wasn’t. When Finn mentioned he was pansexual. The awkwardness of Sean spilled out and Finn pulling back. Mistaking Sean’s natural awkwardness for discomfort. Finn pulled away and Sean felt sick to his stomach.

They continued the video but something was different now, the flirty dynamic gone and replaced with a newfound awkwardness. He didn’t notice Finn stopping himself from calling him sweetie.

He texted Lyla to hold off editing the end when Finn comes out.

_ I want to make sure he’s okay with coming out on camera first. _

It was a good excuse and she ran with it of course and he called Finn. Suddenly needing him to...to understand.

“Hey, laddie!” Finn greeted and Sean wanted sweetie. Wanted sweetheart something...different than laddie.

That was weird, wasn’t it?

“Hey uh...I wanted to ask you a question.”

“Uh...this isn’t about the bug, is it? I don’t really have to do this?”

Sean chuckled. “No dude, I wasn’t serious about that. I wanted to ask you about something you said on camera.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, you...uh said you were...p-pansexual.” He cringed at the stutter. 

“Oh...yeah...” It sounded like he wanted to say more but Sean cut him off.

“I just watched the footage and dude I’m sorry. I-I made it like...super awkward after you said that. I didn’t mean to. I just...never met anyone other than...straight. It was just...new you know.” He swallowed playing with the sleeve of his hoodie. “I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.”

On the other side of the line, Finn laughed. “Sweetie-”

His heart skipped just at the word and he was sure he was swooning already. 

“-I thought I was the one that made it uncomfortable. Didn’t mean to make it-”

“You didn’t.” Sean quickly added. “I’m just...awkward...” As if it wasn’t clear enough. “It was just...new to me.”

“I get it, sweetheart. I didn’t just change my views on sexuality, politics, life in general in a blink. It takes time sweetie.”

“R-right...” Sean said taking a seat. “How did you...uh...know?”

What was he doing? This was not how this conversation was supposed to go, but it already felt like he was knee-deep in quicksand.

“Shit...it’s really hard to say. As long as I could remember. Just sit in my room jerk-in-it to a playboy and thinking ‘shit this would be one hundred times better if there was a dick here too'.” Finn laughed and Sean couldn’t keep the smile off of his face at the sound. “Then, I met Casey.”

“Casey?”

“Yeah, sweetest thing, from New York. They were nonbinary which blew my fuckin’ mind at one point. But damn did I love ‘em.”

There was a cold pit in his stomach and Sean shifted in his seat. “That’s when you knew you didn’t care.”

“I care about the person. Who they are on the inside and how they treat other people. That’s what I care about.” 

“What happened with Casey?”

“Well...somethin’ aren’t meant to be. That’s how the river of life flows. And though there might be rocks along the way you still just gotta go with the flow. Damn, that sounds deep don’t it.”

Sean takes in Finn's words, licking his lip before remembering why he had even called Finn. “I wanted to ask, did you want me to take out that part? I mean are you fine with coming out?”

“Oh yeah sweetie, I don’t mind. Let'em know Finn all about equal opportunity!”

“Okay...um...just let me know when you want to shoot the next video...or...whatever. T-text me for whatever.”

“I will sweetheart.”

His face is flame again and he choked on his goodbye to Finn. He sat there a good few minutes before he remembered that he was streaming.

“Sorry guys!” Sean said coming back. Lyla on her stream and moved on to editing something else and he decided to text her later that it was okay to keep it in...maybe after she was officially done streaming, to do it offline.

*

It’s a week later when Finn returns to shoot another video and Sean decides that this time it should be a game. A one-off as they like to call it. No pressure.

“How did the video turn out?” Finn asked sitting down on Sean’s couch while Sean pulled out several games from his collection.

“You didn’t watch it? It was released yesterday.” Sean asked listening to Finn’s answer.

“Uh, nah. No internet at my place. Roommates moving on to Cali, taking the Wi-Fi with them.”

Sean frowned, turning to look at Finn. “Oh...that sucks.”

“Nah it’s cool. More wondering if I ruined your channel by taking up space on your couch.”

“No!” Sean said way quicker than he meant it. “I mean...honestly dude, people love you. I got a lot of likes on that video, everyone wants to know how your finger is doing.”

Finn chuckled, wiggling his finger cast. “I’m glad it did well.”

“So what do you want to play?” Sean laid out a few games, Mario Kart, Mario Maker, Fortnite, games that they could do a match and that was it. No pressure.

“How about this?” Instead of picking the easy one-off games Sean has laid out Finn stood up and picked up a different game.

Until Dawn.

The game Lyla had gotten him as a gift that every other top tier gaming YouTuber has already done but he was too afraid to play on his own. As long as his channel was alive he had never been able to do a horror game.

“Um...that’s kind of a long game.” Sean taking it from Finn. “I mean too long for one-day gameplay.”

“Have you played it before?” Finn asked looking around at the other games Sean has.

“No...too scared.” He feels a little embarrassed to say that especially after Finn laughs. For a moment he thinks Finn will tease him for being too afraid to play a game but Finn put his arm around him and pulled him close. 

“Damn Sweetie, how scary can this game be.”

“Too scary for me to be playing it ever again after you leave,” Sean said tossing it down on the table. “So unless we sit here and spend the six hours it’s going to take to complete it, we might have to pick something else.”

Finn let his arm slip away from Sean before once again moving to pick up the game. “Well...what if I come back to play the rest with you if we don’t finish today.”

Sean blinked, not wanting to assume anything but hoping Finn was actually getting at what Sean was hoping he was getting at.

“I mean, if this is more of a solo thing for you that’s cool. Just...thought we had fun last time and wouldn’t mind doing this more often.”

“M-me too,” Sean said with a smile. “I think you would be a good presence on the channel. I mean it's easier to do this with someone else then...talking to myself and trying to make it interesting. If you’re free.”

Finn laughed. “Oh yeah, I’m free. As long as you don’t mind playing video games with the guy who slept with your girl.”

Scoffing, Sean rolled his eyes. “Dude, I think we're past you just being the guy who slept with me girl.” It makes him embarrassed to say that. Maybe he's overstepping their relationship. I mean this is their only second relationship. He expects Finn to just laugh but he just smiles as brightly as ever.

“Damn, sweetie, you a mind reader or somethin'?"

Still, a little embarrassed Sean scratches the back of his neck. He can't really meet Finn's eyes but the older male put his arm around his shoulder and pulled him against him. "Here I thought I was the only one getting obsessed."

Sean has no real answer to this but Finn doesn't seem to expect one instead, leading Sean to the couch and plopping down with him. "Alright! Let's get gaming! And show me how scared this game is?"


	3. Midnight Update, it's been a long day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all the nice comments. Really, I love them all. So there is a time skip in this chapter and will be another one in the next one. I hope you guys enjoy this update, it took me a long time to write this one, but I'm excited for the next chapter. We're half way there!

The third video is on their channel.

“Hey there strays. It’s Self-Care Sunday and welcome back to The Game Den!” Sean introduced with a smile to the camera.

It’s an odd thing to think about that eight months ago, DiazGame was just a small channel with just him playing by himself and now in early May DiazGames had changed into The Game Den, and it was as much Finn’s channel as it was Sean’s.

Finn seemed to bring life to the channel that had been missing. It seemed to be what the channel had always been without. The two of them playing off each other.

While Sean liked to do things carefully with thought and trying to complete any game 100%, Finn’s style of playing was smashing buttons and running headfirst into danger as soon as it is presented to him.

It had been a hard transition at the beginning. They had hit the ground running and stumbled a little. Their first actual game playthrough was Until Dawn. It started out fine. They had agreed to separate the characters, taking turns playing one of the characters at a time, choosing the order from switching off as the characters first appeared. In the end, Sean had played as Beth (which wasn’t even fair because she dies like right away), Chris, Matt, Mike, and Josh while Finn played Sam, Jess, Ashley, and Emily. (‘You don’t mind playing all the girls?’ ‘Mind!? I’m playing Mother fuckin’ Hayden Panettiere! What more could I ask for!’)

But when the game finally got started past the beginning cool down, it had gotten...frustrating. Playing the game with Finn had given Sean such anxiety as they both seemed to do the complete opposite of each other. Sean tried to keep the peace and Finn liked to add drama. While Sean pretty much saw all the clearly bad paths, Finn enjoyed walking right into them.

When Ashley had died, Sean had not taken it well. In games like these, he hated having any of his characters killed. And no matter how much Finn squeezed him apologizing while laughing, Sean really could not believe Finn had let that happen. Though it was hard to stay mad at Finn even when he was making clearly bad choices. Sean would admit it was fun to have someone to talk to besides just making up his own conversation to a camera by himself. Some YouTubers were able to do it but Sean found it draining. 

He almost forgot how much he enjoyed playing with someone else. Having someone to talk too and react with and just be with just made it all easier.

After completely Until Dawn with Sam, Mike, Jess, Chris, and Emily alive at the end, they moved on to a game Sean wanted to play. From there it continued going back and forth and playing games, one actively playing and the other watching or any two-player games they could find.

Before long, their subscriber's numbers continued to climb as the school year continued.

They began to do things like Self-care Sunday Stream where they would do some self-care like face masks or maybe deep conditioning and play a relaxing game like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley and just talk. It seemed like every Sunday Sean was spilling his guts to Finn while the world listened and Finn did the same, baring his soul to Sean as if they didn’t have thousands of people watching them.

They talked about Sean’s mom and Finn’s dad. Sean spoke about the one time a racist redneck tried to lock him in his staff room ready to accuse Sean of stealing until Jenn came to his rescue. Even when the cops came, they did nothing to really help. Finn spoke about his time after getting out of jail and the traveling he did. It didn’t seem to be anything they couldn’t drag out each other.

Well...almost anything.

Either way, it was early May and Sean was graduating this Friday. Life was going pretty well.

“So graduation, moving, a lot of coming up this weekend,” Finn said pulling his hair into a ponytail.

One of the things everyone loved to comment about was Finn’s hair growth. And it was growing, all the way to his shoulders. The left side of his temple was still shaved but the brown hair cascaded down with a mix of blue.

He didn’t think Finn could get hotter but the longer his hair grew the more Sean felt for him. He shook the thought away from his head and focused on what Finn had been saying.

“Yeah...” He was nervous about it all. At the time YouTube seemed to be the second hand thought for him while College and his art degree ruled it all but now, almost a million subscribers and moving to California next week, he hadn’t almost passed school.

Finn wouldn’t let him drop out even when the stress of school and YouTube demands got in the way.

“Nothin’ forever sweetie. It’s tough now, but the degree will be worth it in the end.” Finn said rubbing Sean’s back after he had a panic attack about it all, one night. The same night they had decided to do Self-Care Sunday Stream.

“How many tickets you got?” Finn asked looking away from the flower he was planting around his house in Animal Crossing. His character looked as much as Finn as possible with spiky brown hair and a smile on his face. Someone had designed an outfit that looked like his signature look for him and he was happily wearing it. “Wait, is Maple planning to move?!”

Dropping down one more flower, Finn quickly ran over to the bear’s house, ready to make sure she wouldn’t be leaving. Sean was sure Finn liked this game more than he did. He always took it so seriously. He got upset when some of the villagers left and always tried to get new animals to stay even when there wasn’t room. He spent a lot of time making the place pretty while Sean's character did most of the collecting, filling the museum and aquarium. For the time being, he looked back at his tablet where he was drawing the thumbnail for their next video.

They had just finished up Detroit: Becoming Human and had come a long way from butting heads about what to do. Sean was happy to say that Finn had equally wanted Conner to deviate, Kara and Alice to make it to Canada safely (with Luther! They need Luther!), and happiness for Marcus and the rebellion...though how the rebellion happened did cause some debate between them.

In the end, it had all ended pretty well for everyone and he was drawing himself and Finn high fiving each other, Sean dressed up similar to a cyborg sent from CyberLife and Finn dressed up as a deviant on the run.

“Uh...Five.” Sean looked up at Finn hoping he knew where Finn was going. “Um...do you want to-”

“Of course darlin’!” Finn all but shouted almost dropping his bowl of cereal. “Dude, I know you are going to give one to Daniel and your dad but that leaves three? Will you give one to Lyla? Or is she graduating too? Can I come? Shit, I wish Cass was still around, she would love to see this shit.”

“Yeah...” Sean let out a small chuckle the tension easing off of him. He had wanted to ask and was glad it was finally out in the open. With the mention of Cass a little excitement rolled over him. He had missed the chance to meet the friends Finn had before they headed back to Cali, but it was one of the reasons he, Finn, and Lyla were even planning to move there. Not only was it pretty much YouTube central at this point but Finn was excited to see his road family

“Fuckin’ A!” Finn cheered now spilling his cereal and milk. “Oops,” He put the bowl down getting up to clean up. “Dude, I can’t wait to meet your dad and Daniel.”

Sean bit his lip as he looked at Finn. They had discussed this a few times because of course, it was unavoidable. Thanksgiving and Winter break, Sean left to go home to Settle to see his father and Daniel...and he never invited Finn to come along.

Finn also never explicitly said he wanted to go but Sean knew. It was and probably always be a thing for Finn to feel like people like Sean and Jenn never wanted him actively in his life. For Spring Break he hadn’t gone home and instead spent his time with his friends in Mexico but he knew Finn wanted to see them.

Sean wanted that too...but he couldn’t help but feel a little hesitant. Both his father and Daniel knew about Finn. They watched his channel (Daniel more so than his dad) and Daniel had not shut up about the older male when Sean was home.

His dad was of course worried.

“How do you know him?”

“He looks a little...rough, mijo?”

“You’re living with him!?”

Yeah, that last one was a pretty new development. Finn had been sleeping on his couch for a while but it had only became official at the beginning of the month. Finn didn’t want to impose, sleeping on his couch for a week before going somewhere else. After a while, Sean had just offered his couch permanently.

His dad was trying his best not to judge a book by his cover too harshly but Sean could tell he was a little worried about the guy. Face tattoos, tongue piercing, a weed lover, Sean could only image the blood vessel his father would burst if he knew Sean used to buy weed from him.

The chat beside him was, of course, going crazy about how excited Finn was about meeting Sean’s father and he could feel his cheeks heating up. Chat always had a way of making something way bigger than necessary and it was never-ending now that their channel had become so much bigger.

“No! Maple’s leavin’!” Finn suddenly shouted. “How do I stop this! Guys, how do I stop this!? Dude if she leaves I’m goin’ ta be so fuckin’ upset.”

Sean couldn’t help but laugh. “Go back in time?”

“That’s cheatin’! I gotta keep her with my own charm!”

“Dude once they pack up it’s no goin’ back.”

Finn looked at him so heartbroken and Sean felt bad for laughing. “Dude, self-care. Go back in time and try to stop it. I’ll put on your face mask.”

With a deep breath Finn nodded and began to go back in the settings of the game trying to change the time to go back. Sean grabbed the face mask paste moving closer to Finn. They have done this before...well Finn had done this before. He’s never afraid to get close and personal with Sean.

Sean always feels like he’s going to swallow his tongue when he gets too close to Finn. It’s always best to just distract himself by talking. “W-why do you like Maple so much?”

“Dude are you serious! She’s my favorite character!”

“I thought K.K Slider was your favorite character?”

“He is but he’s not a villager. “ Finn whined. 

“Okay, relax, hold still.”

If anyone had told him that he would be putting homemade face mask on the face of the guy who slept with his girlfriend behind his back he would call them crazy.

Despite going back in time, Maple left anyway and Finn was so upset that he couldn't even play anymore so once Sean was done putting the face mask on Finn’s face he took over. “Dude, I’m never going to play this game again,” Finn reassured moving to lay down on the couch while Sean just laughed.

“Dude, relax, if you love something you have to let it go, right?” Sean teased picking up one of the flowers Finn just planted and pocketing it. Of course, Finn didn’t answer and instead got up. 

“Yeah...that’s pretty deep sweetie. I’m guessin’ you follow that rule too?”

Sean could already see that there was something going on here and he looked at Finn just in time to see he had grabbed his favorite hoodie. “Dude what are you doing!”

“If you love somethin’ you gotta let it go!” Finn teased coming back and flopping back on the couch. “I guess this hoodie mine now.”

“Dude, you’re going to steal my hoodie because your favorite villager left! That’s not in my control!” 

“Yeah it is dude! You’ve been jealous of Maple the day she replaced Wolfgang!” Finn argued.

With the amount of fight Finn was trying to display with his face covered in a green face mask, Sean could barely contain his laughter.

He held his sides and fell over as Finn continued to argue, trying his best to keep a straight face as well. Ranting about Sean favoriting their wolf-themed village more than the others and always had it out for the bear because she had moved in right after the wolf had left.

This was usually how it went. Finn making him laugh so much that it brought tears to his eyes. Everyone loved Finn, and Sean could see why. He was funny, bright, and unique. It really felt like Finn had been the one thing that had been always missing from his channel.

They continued to play and talk together, just chilling on camera with fans for an hour before time was finally up.

“Welp, it looks like it’s time to wrap it up,” Finn said with a stretch. “How I look, huh?” He faced his cleaned off face to the camera, trying his best to make a smoldering gaze. Sean looked at the chat to read the messages coming through.

[FLAWLESS!]

[OMG! Such Hot! Wow!]

[Sean your skin is glowing!]

[What did you put in that face mask?]

[Finn coming along has to be the best thing that has happened to this channel.]

Sean blinked at the comment, it quickly disappearing in the sea of chats but standing out in his mind.

“Sean,” Finn called, bringing Sean’s attention back to him. “You ready to say goodbye?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sean said sitting back and forcing a smile. “Until next time strays. We’ll see you the next full moon.”

“Bye lovelies!” Finn waved the peace sign to them.

With that, Sean shut off their camera before dropping his smile.

A second later, Finn put his arm around him, hanging off of Sean’s shoulder. “Pizza?”

“Sushi?” Sean asked looking at Finn.

Finn smiled back and nodded. “Sushi.”

He held Sean tight for a moment before slipping away. “Ask Lyla if she wants to come,” Finn said grabbing the computer in front of Sean and unplugging everything. “I’ll shut this off.”

“Oh okay,” Sean said standing up. He wanted to give the chat a quick look but instead he grabbed his phone. “This is the last time we’ll probably be trying out the food around here.”

“That’s why we gotta eat as much of it as we can. Don’t wanna forget this shit hole.”

Shit hole yeah...but as Sean looked back at Finn leaned over the computer he couldn’t help but think that this shit hole wasn’t all that bad.

*

His final days of school were dreadfully uneventful. He decorated his cap with a cartoonish version of himself saying ‘I got a degree just to do YouTube instead’.

Finn got a laugh out that.

He would be graduating on Friday and his father and brother were coming on Thursday night.

They had already planned to have dinner and of course his father invited Lyla as well as Finn. 

“I want to meet your co-host, if he’s okay with that,” Esteban said when he called to offer the invite on Wednesday.

“Uh...yeah he’ll probably like that,” Sean said a little nervous for some reason. “Lyla too...And me you know because...free meal.”

“Free?! With your YouTube career kicking off I thought you would be paying!” Esteban teased.

“Dad, it’s not as much as you think.”

Maybe if he was alone and not splitting the 3,000 or so dollars he was making a month between himself, Finn, and Lyla.

It wasn’t much really, but Finn had been surprised to get anything at all. “You mean...we play games all day and get money? It’s that easy?!”

Not exactly.

Now that they were considered pretty big YouTubers they had to be ad-friendly. And Finn was anything but ad-friendly.

Several of their videos were demonetized and Finn was quickly learning what could and couldn’t be said.

It was still a work in process.

“Mijo...no matter what you do now. I am proud of you.” His dad said.

It wasn’t the first time his father had said this and it probably wouldn’t be the last, but he still felt his face flush. “Thanks...”

“Awe, is that all you’re going to give your Papito!? After I slave over broken cars all day to take care of you and your brother.”

“Dad-” Sean whined.

“You’re right. We can save it for tomorrow.”

Sean scoffed before saying goodbye to his father.

He looked down at his phone for a moment before slipping it into his pocket as he reached the front steps of his place.

Their new place was much nicer, though he would be sharing it with Lyla, Finn, and all four of Finn’s friends. Not untypical for living in expensive Santa Monica, California. The closest Finn was going to get to living on the beach in Costa Rica. 

Though six roommates was already too many roommates in Sean’s mind so hopefully it wouldn’t belong. With the rate their channel was growing who knew how much money they would be making.

With a sigh, Sean unlocked the door to his place, not surprised to see Finn just chilling on the couch. He was reading a book but as soon as he spotted Sean he slammed his book shut. "Sean, I was waitin' for ya."  
  


"Oh?" Sean dropped his bag by the door and coming to sit beside Finn. "What's up?"

"What's your dad like?"

For a moment, Sean thought about the question before shrugging. "Kind of like a big kid. Why?"

Finn chuckled a little. "Don't wanna...make him uncomfortable."

"How so? He wants to meet you."

"You think that's a good idea?" Finn shifted a little in his spot and Sean looked at him. Finn looked uncomfortable.

"Yeah. Don't worry dude. My dad is cool...as cool as a dad can be I guess, but just be yourself...it might take him a second to get it but he'll appreciate it more if you just act like yourself."

Finn nodded. "Never met a dad before."

"Dude don't worry. Dad's pretty chill. I'll admit that."

"I'm sure he is if you're his son sweetie." Finn smiled at him, patting his thigh before standing up. "Welp, tomorrow the big day, graduation. How you feelin'?"

"Glad it's finally over. And just focus on YouTube now."

"I know it was tough sweetie," Finn said headed towards the kitchen. "But it's always good to have a backup plan."

"What's your backup plan?" Sean stood up and followed him, catching the water bottle Finn threw his way.

He waited for Finn to answer, giving him a moment to take a sip of water before he shrugged. "I don't worry about that too much sweetie. I just go with the flow."

"Oh but I have to have a backup plan?"

"We different people sweetie. Somethin' tellin' me going with the flow really isn't your style. And you would have regretted it if you didn't finish this."

Sean can really argue that. "Still...if the river leads to a waterfall that you know is coming...you'll still just keep going with the flow?"

Another shrug and a smile. "Somethin' at the bottom of the waterfall."

"Wow...what's it like to live so nonchalantly. " 

"Well I loss a tooth and met you so it has it's ups and down."

Despite himself, Sean let out a chuckle.

*

It was very clear that Finn was way more excited about graduation then Sean was. Though honestly, anything that had Sean waking up early in the morning had him less excited.

"Wakie, wakie college boy!" Finn said slamming the door to his bedroom. "Time to graduate!"

"Too early..." Sean grumbled though he dragged himself up.

He got ready slowly, while Finn was a buzz of energy, taking non stop, even going so far as to sitting in the bathroom while Sean took a shower. "Dude get out!"

"What? I'm not lookin'," Finn teased.

When he was finally dressed, Finn helping him with his tie Lyla came over.

She was going to be graduating at the exact same time and was dressed in a nice purple dress.

"Lookin' good their baby girl," Finn said spinning her around to get a good look. "Damn...I'm proud of you two."

"Awe, thanks dad," Lyla teased. "I wanted to meet up before, gotta meet momster."

"Hmmm, sounds like someone needs a little lift." Finn smiled mischievously at her and Lyla smiled back.

"No," Sean said as the two of them walked off towards the counter. "Guys, we can't get high before meeting up with my dad."

"Come on Sean. Your dad might be cool but my mom is a literal monster. I need to just be a little chill." Lyla said putting her bag on the counter. "Besides, nothing a little perfume can't cover-up."

Finn finished packing Sean's bowl before taking a hit, holding it out to Lyla. "Damn, she sounds serious."

"She is." Sean and Lyla said together.

Despite his better judgment, he smoked a little, just to get over his own nerves. Not of graduating but for the moment his father would meet Finn.

It was times like this that he was happy they lived close enough to campus to just walk to the field for graduation. Sean texted his father that they were on their way.

It didn't take him long to find them. His father and Daniel waiting for him near the entrance.

Esteban spotted him first and headed towards him with open arms. "There he is! The man of the hour!"

Sean wanted to be embarrassed but his father's happy mood was contagious. He smiled, wrapping his arms around his father.

Daniel didn't seem to care. "Woah! Are you Finn?"

"Hey little man." Finn smiled, "Let me guess, you're little bro."

"Dude, your tattoos are so cool! How many do you have?"

"You know, I think I lost count." Finn looked down at his hands, "usually just get them whenever I feel like it."

Sean let his dad go and took a deep breath. Maybe he should have smoked a little more before this.

“Dad, this is Finn,” Sean said looking at Finn who smiled brightly. “Finn...this is my dad.”

“Hola!” Finn said with a bright smile. Sean sighed, shaking his head. He should have told Finn not to speak Spanish and from the look on his father’s face he was not impressed.

“Entonces este es tu compañero de cuarto?” Esteban asked looking at Sean. Finn blinked owlishly before looking at Sean.

“Amigo papa.” 

“No se acostaba con Jenn?”

“Hemos terminado con ese papa. We host a show together now.” He switched to English, hoping his father would follow his lead.

“Dad doesn’t watch it.” Daniel pointed out finally joining the conversation.

“Not true.” Esteban said shaking his head. “I maybe be a few episodes behind but I do watch when I have the time.”

“It’s fine dad.”

Honestly, it might be better if his father didn’t watch it. Sean was embarrassed enough watching the episodes himself. His dad watching it only made him more embarrassed. He spotted one of his fellow art students waving him over and he bit his lip. “I better get going.”

“We’ll go take our seats,” Finn said with a smile. “Good luck sweetie! Though...I guess you don’t need it.”

For once, Finn’s face was a little flushed and though Sean couldn’t really say why his own cheeks felt a little hot.

“With his luck, he will need it.” Daniel snickered. “Don’t trip Sean.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Esteban said ushering Daniel off.

Finn gave Sean a thumb up before walking off with Esteban and Daniel. 

The rest of graduation seemed to be going at a snail's pace. They had combined the science and arts together and the list seemed never-ending, especially in Sean's opinion since he was lucky enough to be relatively early in getting his diploma.

"Sean Diaz."

Right as his name was called he could already hear Finn cheering and whistling, despite the principle telling everyone to hold their applauds. 

"Let's go, sweetie!" Finn yelled and Sean ducked his head embarrassed, the others around him giggling.

At least Lyla got the same treatment and he was sure it was turn out worse for her since her mother didn't even know Finn.

He was anxious to get going, knowing that Finn was sitting alone with his father with only Daniel as his buffer. He could only imagine what was going on.

Finally, it was over and hats were thrown (and then collected, Sean worked hard on his hat damn it) and the only thing left to endure was the pictures Esteban and Lyla's mom forced him and Lyla to take.

Finn was taking his own with a proud smile on his face.

"Should we all go out for dinner?" Esteban looked at Mrs. Park.

"Lyla and I will be eating dinner alone tonight." Ms. Park said. "Her father will be meeting us at the restaurant. At least he was able to make it there."

Lyla gave Sean and Finn a pleading look. before she was dragged off.

"Well mijo, what do you want for dinner?" Esteban asked turning to look at Sean.

"Let's just have pizza." Sean said with a shrug. "And take it to our place...I was thinking that we uh...make a video together."

"Yes!" Daniel all but shouted. "Dude yes! Your channel is so big now since you added Finn. You have a million subscribers."

"Is that a lot?" Esteban asked as they headed to the car.

"It's more that Sean could ever do by himself." Daniel snickered.

"Dude, shut up."

"Welp, let's go get some pizza and then...make a video." Esteban smiled at the group as they all headed to his car.

*

"Hey strays, welcome to another episode." Sean greeted the camera. "Today we have two special guest, one you've seen before but someone you might not know. My dad and my brother."

"Do I greet the camera?" Esteban asked.

"Don't worry about it, let's just start playing."

They started out simple, Daniel was more into playing with Finn and his father seemed to just be content with watching.

It was finally when they came to Mortal Kombat that Esteban sat up. "How about I play?'

Finn looked surprised by him speaking and he began to hand him the controller but instead Esteban shook his head. "I actually rather play against you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, show me why Daniel always raves whenever he's done watching your videos."

"Alright..." Finn smiled sitting back against the couch a pose Sean knew very well.

It was one of their signatures when they played, Finn relaxed pose of gaming. For the most part he always just sat back and played but when things started to get intense he had to sit up and Sean had dubbed it 'Gamer Mode activated'. The first time Sean had noticed Finn doing it was during their Becoming Human playthrough.

“Go easy on me.” Esteban said chuckling. “I haven’t played this game before.”

“I’m sure you don’t need it.” Finn laughed good naturally. 

Finally settling on a character Sean and Daniel looked at each other over Finn. He really didn’t know what he was getting into.

Finn playing Kung Lao verses Estaban playing Erron Black.

Right off the back, Esteban was on Finn and not letting up until the first round was over and won.

From his slouched position, Finn sat up and Daniel giggled. “Gamer Mode activated!”

The second round ended quicker than the first as right off the back, Kung Lao’s head exploded.

Esteban won and laughed. “Wow, you’re pretty good son.”

Finn chuckled, “Now that ain’t fair, playin’ me like that.”

“As far as I can see you played yourself. Underestimating anyone from the Diaz family.” Esteban winked at him.

Sean noticed the tension leaving Finn’s shoulder and he smiled back.

“It’s because he’s so used to beating Sean in games all the time.” Daniel teased sticking his tongue at Sean.

“Dude, shut up.” He reached around Finn to push his brother who moved out of the way. 

“Hey! Don’t get mad! Everyone knows you suck at games.”

“Dude seriously-”

“Alright you two.” Esteban calmly spoke.

Sean tried his best not to grit his teeth to hard.

They continued to play, mostly Esteban, Finn, and Daniel and Sean tried not to look as bad as he felt. He put his input where it was needed, remembering that they were on camera and while Finn was mostly the life of the party he wasn’t the only host here. 

It didn’t take long for his father to start to get tired. Sean picked up his father yawning pretty quickly and decided to cut it after they had a decent enough of footage.

Despite how he was feeling he couldn’t help the smile on his face when they all howled together.

“How about we call it a night Danny Boy.” Esteban said once again stifling a yawn.

“Dad, can I spend the night?” Daniel looking at Esteban with puppy dog eyes. It didn’t have the same oomph it did when he was younger and Sean was wondering if he should tell him that.

“Maybe you should ask your brother and his roommate.”

Daniel pouted for a moment, looking at Sean for a split second before looking at Finn. “Finn, can I spend the night.”

Sean rolled his eyes, and Finn chuckled. “No sweat off my back. If big bro is okay with it.”

“Yeah...whatever.” Sean said waving it off. No matter how old he got, he was sure at this point Daniel would probably never not get what he wanted. The joys of being the youngest. Hmm...maybe Finn was also used to that as well.

“Well then if it’s okay. I’ll come by in the morning with your stuff and then we’ll head out.” Esteban stood up groaning a little before looking at Sean. “Walk me out?”

“Yeah...” He stood up, following his father out to his car.

As soon as the door was shut Estaban sighed. “Wow...what a day.”

“Yeah.” Sean let out a sigh himself. “Tired.”

“Come now, you’re too young to be tired!” Esteban put his hand on his shoulder giving him a squeeze, smiling at Sean fondly. “Sean I’m...I’m so proud of you. So proud of you.”

His father’s eyes were glassy and he looked ready to cry and Sean let a small smile come to his face. “Thanks dad...”

He reached out to hug his father, who hugged him back just as tightly. “I have faith in you Sean just...be careful in California. Be careful in wherever you decide to go. Just know you can always come to me for anything you need.”

“Thanks dad, I know. Te amo papa.”

If possible, his father held him tighter. “Te amo mijo.”

Sean felt his eyes tearing up a little and he hid his face in his father's chest before pulling away. Esteban held the back of his head for a moment before giving it a squeeze and letting go. He waited till his father was back in his car and driving off before he headed back inside. 

"Dude we're going live!" Daniel said with a large smile.

Well...there goes hoping for some sleep.

*

“Hey strays, it’s not Sunday but we’re streaming!” Sean said once there was enough people in the chat telling him that everything seemed to be running smoothly. Some of you have seen him before but today we have my brother and we’re going to answer some questions, play some games and yeah, just chill.” Sean said sitting back on the couch.

“What up guys!” Daniel shouted. “The Best Diaz sibling is here!? We’re taking over the channel!”

Sean rolled his eyes, how was Daniel not tired.

“Let’s start off with some questions,” Finn said leaning his head back against the couch. “We just got finished shootin’ a video with the whole Diaz Clan. Getting my ass kicked is tirin’.”

“Sean’s the only one getting his ass kicked.”

“Dude...both of you. Stop cursing.” Sean shook his head.

They kick off the questions pretty tame, some of them directed at him most directed at Finn. Even Daniel got a few.

“Follow me on Tik Tok.” Daniel promotes winking and smiling at the camera. Sean bite his lip to keep himself from laughing.

“Yo! You’re on Tik Tok, sweetie why you never tell me?” Finn slapped at Sean’s leg getting his attention.

“Didn’t think you would use Tik Tok.” 

For some reason that made Daniel shoot him a glare.

He was hoping his father wasn’t watching this because the questions were quickly getting spicy.

[Finn! Top or bottom?]

Very...spicy.

“Top,” Finn said without an ounce of hesitation.

Sean's face heated up while Daniel made a face. “Ew, your fans are gross.”

“Nah, they just curious.” 

[Sean why you so thicc?]

Sean rolled his eyes, though he could feel the blush creeping on his cheek and neck. There were way too many comments like that and Finn just laughed while Daniel made a face.

It was almost as frequent as-

[Are you a furry?]

“No, I’m not a furry,” Sean said already knowing that the question was directed at him. With the whole Den motif, he tended to draw a wolf version of himself and a fox version of Finn in some of their live stream thumbnail and their logo and banner on YouTube. “Not that there’s anything wrong with them, I’m just not one myself.”

[Daniel, do you have braces?]

Daniel quickly shut his mouth, the smile dropping from his face. Sean knew how Daniel felt about his braces, it was a pretty new development for him.

“Lyla used to have braces.” Sean offered up to the camera. “It’s like you two are really meant to be.”

He’s only teasing and he spots Daniel flushing out the corner of his eyes.

“Dude, I think they look great,” Finn said patting Daniel’s shoulder. “Red is a nice color.”

“Thanks, Finn.”

[Who’s better at Mario Kart, Sean or Daniel?]

“I am.” They both said at the same time.

While Daniel and Sean glared at each other Finn couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “Oh Boy! Here we go. Daniel vs Sean! The moment we’ve all been waiting for.”

Sean rather answer more questions but he couldn’t stop Finn from setting up the Switch while Daniel trash talk.

“Alright, boys. Let’s make it interestin'. You’ll both play Rainbow Road on 200 CCs. Let’s see who crushes."

Daniel flopped down on the couch. “Prepare to be amazed.”

Everyone should be amazed. While both Daniel and Sean own the game, playing games was pretty much his job now.

It was all he did now and Daniel had to know that Sean played Mario Kart at least once a week now.

But it didn’t seem like Daniel wasn’t completely helpless. Maybe he had been practicing and it has paid off. He only fell off the road a few times and only came in second after Sean.

“Damn! The Diaz pack just gamin’ masters!” Finn said sitting back amazed and Sean felt a little proud of Finn’s encouragement. “One time is luck. Second time is skill. So let’s see...”

Sean took a deep breath as the next game began again. This race started as well as the first one and through Rainbow Road was always pretty tough, his need for perfection in all games has caused him to be pretty good at this game even going the fastest speed.

He’s in first place the last lap when suddenly his control her knocked from his hand.

It’s a perfect storm from there, he’s left open for a red shell and just to add insult to injury Daniel runs him over before crossing the finish line, carefully tucking his leg back under him before jumping up. 

“Oh fuck that!” Sean snapped.

“Hah! I rule! I told you Sean sucks at games.”

“Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Sean snapped glaring at his brother. “As if I couldn’t smell your stupid foot kicking my control out of my hands.”

“Woah, easy there pups. No need to snip at each other like that.” Finn said picking up Sean’s controller. “We all just playing games here, chillin’ and shit.”

It didn’t feel that way to Sean. After Mario Kart, Daniel got bored and they played Smash Bro’s instead. At least Finn and Daniel did, he was beginning to lose his appetite for playing games at all.

His dad wouldn’t like it but with Finn’s energy mixing with Daniel’s there was no way he was going to get his brother to fall asleep at a normal time.

At least his normal time. At midnight, Sean drew the line. “Bed.”

“Awe come on Sean!” Daniel whined. “Just five more minutes.”

“Yeah, five more minutes to brush your teeth and get ready for bed,” Sean said taking the controller. “Bed enano.”

“You’re so unfair!” Daniel groaned. “I’m fourteen years old! I can stay up longer.”

“Fourteen or six? Because I can’t really tell right now.” Sean growled at him. “Go to bed.”

“You’re so uncool!” Daniel stomped his way to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. But it wasn’t hard enough so he opened it and slammed it.

Sean sighed, running his hand through his hair before he felt Finn grabbing his shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry,” Finn said with a smile. “I was like that at his age. Everyone’s cooler than their brother.”

It helped a little and Sean nodded. Giving him a squeeze, Finn smiled a little wickedly at him. “When you get the little pup to bed, come meet me in your bedroom. There's something I want to show you.”

“Yeah.” Sean agreed.

With another pat on his shoulder, Finn slipped out and Sean waited for his brother. When Daniel finally came out he sighed looking at the male. Sometimes it felt like he wasn’t even looking at his brother. He was so much taller, so much older and growing into himself. “Sorry enano...now I’m starting to see what dad is saying when he says you’re growing up so fast. Ugh...I’m going to vomit.”

Daniel continued to stand there, before stepping forward. “You...grew up to Sean. You went away and it seems like you were never around anymore.”

Sean eased up a little, reaching out and grabbing his brother and pulling him into a hug. “Yeah...I know. We haven’t hung out in a while enano.”

“Dude, don’t call me that anymore,” Daniel mumbled hugging his brother back.

Rubbing his brother’s back he let him go before pushing him towards the couch his brother would be sleeping in. “So...you think you’re too old to go to Disneyland?” Sean asked watching his brother climb into his makeshift bed. “Finn, Lyla, and I were going to swing by there when we get to Cali.”

“Dad would never let me go without him...” Daniel mumbled.

“Yeah...probably. But if I say it would be my graduation gift to have you around a little longer...I don’t think he’ll say no to that.”

“Dude...are you serious?”

“Yes Daniel,” Sean said ruffling his brother’s hair. “Weekend in Cali and then I’ll drive you home just in time to not make it to school on Monday.” He winked at his brother who smiled wide back.

“You’re the best.”

“You’re the best enano, now get some sleep. It’ll help if you were well-rested so dad doesn’t think I kept you up all night.”

Daniel flopped back onto the couch.

Smiling down at his brother Sean took a deep breath before heading to his bedroom.

Inside he could see Finn with the camera set up. "There's the man of the hour!"

"Dude, are you live again?" Sean asked shutting the door behind him. 

"I thought this was a special occasion that the fans deserve to see as well."

Finn set the camera up on the tripod before sitting down on the ebd, patting the spot beside him. Feeling a little shy to be in his bed with Finn, Sean shuffled up slowly and sat next to him.

“Daniel’s finally out,” Sean said trying to break the ice.

Finn nodded to him, looking at Sean before giving him a lopsided smile.

“You know I appreciate you,” Finn spoke up.

Taken back, Sean stuttered out a response. “What?”

“I appreciate you. For...lettin’ me stay here with you, lettin’ me play games with you. Shit just...dealin’ with my bullshit in general.” Finn said looking at Sean.

“Thanks,” Sean said not sure what this was coming from. “I appreciate you too.”

With a soft chuckle Finn looked away from him. He seemed to be thinking something over before he looked back at Sean.  “That comment...what did you think of it?”

Sean inhaled, holding the smoke for a moment before exhaling. “What comment?”

With a small chuckle, Finn sat back. “You know the one sweetie. It hurt your feelin’s didn’t it.”

He...didn’t think Finn noticed it...or maybe he just hoped no one had noticed. “It’s just a comment...Sticks and stone and...that shit-”

“Nah.” Finn cut him off leaning forward. “Words can hurt too. You don’t gotta lie to me sweetie.”

Sean looked at Finn before looking at the camera. Why do this live? There must be a reason. “It’s...It’s true though.” Sean said as softly as he could, maybe hoping Finn wouldn’t hear.

Of course he does. Finn shook his head looking at Sean. “Nah...it ain’t true. This channel would be nothin’ without you.”

“Finn, you gotta see that the only reason we have so many subscribers now is because of you.” Sean argued back. He doesn’t want to argue but how could Finn not see that the channel has only grown because of him.

“Yeah, that’s true.” Finn said nodding. “But it ain’t you that keeps getting us demonetized. Without you, YouTube would never let me see the light of day.”

Sean scoffed. “Great, I’m the bland part of our channel that keeps us on YouTube.”

“No I-” Finn let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m saying we need each other. We balance each other. If you weren’t around, I would never finish a real game. Wouldn’t be able to solve any of those puzzles and shit and just wouldn’t fuckin’ think. Until Dawn would be fucking shit show without you. And I doubt I would get Kara and Alice out of there safely. No matter what people say, I don’t make the channel. I would ruin the channel if I was in this on my own.”

Finn looked at him for a moment before reaching from the other side of the bed. "I don't think you noticed but we reached a million subscribers two weeks ago."

Sean hadn't noticed, while the numbers were important he had other things on his mind. "This came in the mail today."

Finn sat back up, this time with the Gold Creators Award in his hands.

"I've never gotten an award before," Finn said looking down at the award. "And I probably wouldn't even get an award if I hadn't met you, sweetie. So no matter what anyone says, I want you to know that I appreciate you and everythin' you do. We all do."

He looked at the camera before back at Sean.

Sean was a little speechless and Finn handed him the award. He still wanted to argue. Not really convinced that Finn couldn't have done this on his own if Finn really wanted too but instead, he rubbed away any wetness from his eyes. "Thanks...uh...Finn. Guys...I...I couldn't do this without you all."

"Me too sweetie." Finn put his arm around him, pulling Sean's head to his neck as they embraced. Sean was happy to be hidden away from the camera, he couldn't be sure but he was sure any moment he was going to start crying.

"Just a little update lovely. We'll catch you on the next time."

"Sunday," Sean mumbled.

"Right, Sunday! See, where would I be without you, sweetie."

Laughing, Sean rolled his eyes but pulled away. "Bye guys...and thank you."

With that, Finn turned off the camera before sitting back and looking at Sean. “Don’t listen to any...loser behind their keyboard. You and me. To the end and shit.”

Finn smiled at him and Sean smiled back. “To the end and shit.”

“There you go, sweetie.” Finn put his arm around his neck, pulling him closer if possible. “Now, for the time being, no more lookin’ at the comments. We should...ban people in the stream who are mean and just let people know that we all here tryin’ to have fun! No need for mean words.”

Sean nodded, looking down at the award one last time before looking at Finn. “So uh...Daniel took your spot.”

“Yeah, just gotta rough it on the floor. I’ve slept on worst.” Finn stood and stretched. “No big deal.”

Sean watched him for a moment before looking back at the award as he spoke. “Uh...you can um...share my bed. It’s big enough for two.”

“Aye, that’s really sweet of you to offer sweetie. I’m only going to give you once chance to back out.” Finn winked at him and Sean smiled.

“Dude, let’s just go to bed.”

“Yeah, I’m beat.” Finn let out an exhausted sigh. “Gonna be a long drive tomorrow.”

“Yeah...Daniel is coming with us. Going to stay the weekend.”

“Damn, you ain’t gotta hang Disneyland over his head just to force him to help you move.”

“Dude, shut up.” Sean shoved Finn out of the way while the male laugh, going to the living room to get ready for bed. Sean looked down at the award one last time before putting it down on the dresser before getting ready for bed.


	4. I confront my ex boyfriend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying the way this is all turning out. I hope you guys are enjoying this, I am having a blast writing it. We're almost done!

The fourth video is on Jenn Murphy’s channel.

Moving to California had to be the best and worst thing he had ever done for himself and his channel.

Upon coming to California he was able to finally meet Finn’s friends Cassidy, Hannah, Penny, Jinx, and Jacob. And just like Finn they’re cool. Cooler than Sean could ever be and just like Finn probably not YouTube friendly.

But it doesn’t stop Sean and Finn from letting them into their channel. It’s kind of like deja vu to have them as guest before a constant presence on the screen.

His fans love them.

And like any other YouTuber what the fans demand you give.

After someone comments:

[When Hannah and Cassidy argue it’s so funny]

Sean gives them a podcast on the channel: B!tch Talk. The title alone gets them demonetized so they frequently do their ad read on that channel.

When another person says:

[You know, I’m pretty sure Penny believes the Earth is flat, but I’m really starting to think he’s right about that Mario Conspiracy]

Penny gets his own show, Game Theory’s where he can dump out the crazies but for some reason really believable theories about the games they love.

His brother in disguise in the comment section says:

[I want more Daniel!]

So Sean gives Daniel his space as well, letting Daniel review video games, giving his honest opinion about games. Even doing some of his own gaming along with his friend Chris.

A real commentator speaks out:

[I love Jinx makeup. They are so pretty]

Though Sean isn’t really sure how it fits the gaming theme but Jinx also gets their own channel mostly about makeup but also cosplay. And though it’s probably the least gaming thing under the Game Den network Finn explains it’s more about who Jinx is not that they aren’t gaming.

Sean gets it.

Before he knows it, The Game Den isn't just Sean and Finn gaming anymore. Every week there is a playthrough with Sean and Finn, a podcast with Hannah and Cass, and a makeup tutorial from Jinx. Penny is a little less frequent, usually whenever he has a theory ready which can be in a week or two or even a month. Daniel and Chris send a review every month, and try to stay frequent on their own gaming channel, but Estaban had been strict about school being first.

The Game Den is now a company name and Sean is the head of it all. Without meaning to he’s somehow become the CEO of a company. With his attention having to be split between gaming, paychecks, rent space, running a fucking business!

It was all a little stressful sometimes but things were coming together.

Their channel is probably the most smooth it has ever been. While he doesn’t have time to draw every thumbnail anymore, he works with an animator to create an opening for them all.

It follows the same formula at the beginning. They all have an animal representation: Wolf for Sean, Fox of Finn, Pitbull for Hannah, Cat for Jinx, Rabbit for Cassidy, Stork for Penny, a small wolf for Daniel, and a Racoon for Chris. All the cartoons animals run onto the screen, crowding around the letters of The Game Den before most of them run off leaving behind whatever show your watching. If you happen to watch Finn and Sean play a game all the other animals run off before the Fox and Wolf fall down, morphing into more human-like animals onto their couch and picking up their controls ready to play. If you were watching Jinx, the cat would fall and land before a display of make-up, winking while they picked up a brush.

Sean is very proud of the work even if it just continues to hammer in that they are all furries in disguise (It goes with the den mortify!).

Even with things running smooth with new animations and edits, it’s still stressful. Lucky he’s not alone.

California isn’t just for actors and singers anymore. It was a place for YouTubers now and with Finn around, it was easy to meet a lot of them.

There were a few that he liked and have been helpful.

Max Caulifield is a tech reviewer, one of the only female reviews on the platform. They’ve hung out together a few times after crossing paths at a party and he’s in some of her camera review videos as a subject as he skates boards. She helped him get in touch with someone who can help with finances. Ingrid joins the team.

Warren Graham is a gamer but also a scientist. He uses science to answer questions about games like how a Pokeball could work in real life, or how fast is Sonic really. It’s pretty interesting stuff to watch. He helps them find a few more editors to help Lyla and soon Jacob and Andres from Sweden joins them.

Brody is an older guy on the platform but is one of the most beloved YouTubers around. He does several documentaries about other YouTubers or just interesting things at a time He helps Sean find a space where the Game Den can work, a central base.

It was tough but it finally comes together and things are a little less stressful.

But as there are some helpful YouTubers that he like there are those that aren’t that great.

Nathan Prescott is a thorn on everyone’s side on YouTube. His channel is big and that gives him the power to really do whatever the hell he wants be it terrorizing his neighbors in the gated community he lives, or making American’s look bad by going to South Korea and recording a dead body in the river by the notorious suicide bridge. Sometimes it seemed like he could do no wrong as long as he gave a halfhearted apology. 

Nathan for some reason has great beef with Finn, always having something to say about Finn’s drug dealer past. Even trying to get him to box Finn.

To Finn’s credit, he takes it all in stride. Anytime the drug dealing comes up he talks freely about his past and how he doesn’t do that. And when it comes to boxing Nathan, well he just admits that he’ll probably get his ass kicked because he’s a lover not a fighter.

Nathan's girlfriend is also someone he can’t really stand. 

Victoria Chase is a drama queen. A vlogger who overdoes everything but has a bigger channel then Sean could ever dream of. She lives for drama and of course the moment Lyla had posted the video about Sean and Jenn, she had flooded Sean’s email with request to speak about it all.

Jenn doesn’t fit in either of those categories. He doesn't like her per say but he doesn’t dislike her either. It took her a while but she slowly came back to social media, starting with Twitter and Instagram before finally returning to YouTube.

They hadn’t talked since the car but it seemed like she was getting back to it. She had become friends with Victoria and that alone was good for business, that and her new series.

At the end of the game, YouTube is all about views, and while the underdog sometimes wins, you’re just better off facing the fact that you’ve been a bad guy and go from there. Jenn fully embraced the fact that she cheated and used that to create a series about cheating.

It’s a YouTube Premium show, something only the ‘best’ YouTubers get. Which is pretty debatable, Brody has one which is great but Nathan also has his own.

Hers has a Catfish style theme of those who have cheated or have been cheated on wanting to confront the ones that did them wrong or they did wrong too. Be it for forgiveness or just getting to the bottom of the age-old question why. It’s already in its second season.

And they have contacted him six times asking for him to come on the show.

Sean has mostly ignored them all by accident. He’s busy, more so than ever before and for the most part during the day he doesn’t even look at his phone.

But just because he’s not actively meaning to ignore the shows calls doesn’t mean he will ever call them back once he notices who has been trying to reach him.

He hopes they just give up but when Sean isn’t reachable the others are.

“Sean, I got an email from your girlfriend.” Hannah said sounding not amused at all. Though she really ever is. 

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Sean couldn’t help but point out, though by the look on Hannah’s face that hadn’t helped. “What did she want?”

“Take a guess.” Hannah scoffed walking past him.

Despite how scary Hannah is, it doesn’t get him to reach out to the show. They try to contact the others about it.

Lyla full-heartedly thinks he should do it. "No matter what, you're going to come good."

Penny wants him to do it too only because the show somehow got his number and that alone launched him into a full-on debate about YouTube and Google controlling everything. He went off the grid for a week afterward.

Jinx is probably the only one who thinks he shouldn't do it. "YouTube can edit it any way they want. And they will definitely edit it in a way to get the most views."

Even though he doesn't need it, he does take in their request and concerns but in the end, he continues to ignore YouTube.

He’s in the middle of filming with Finn when his phone goes off. He ususally remembers to turn off his ringer when filming but he had been expecting a call from his dentist. He gets ready to excuse himself to answer but it’s not his dentist. it’s Jenn.

Jenn Murphy.

Jenn?

“Dude, is Jenn callin’ you?” Finn asked.

They’re in the middle of recording, and Lyla will probably have to edit that out. “Should I answer it?”

“Sweetie, that’s up to you.”

God, Sean wish it wasn’t.

“I guess I’ll be back...” He picked up his phone and slipping out of their game office.

He had been ignoring the call from the show for so long it was almost easy to forget that it’s actually her show and maybe she does have some control. Either way this call makes him nervous.

Hell, Finn constantly made him nervous.

He answered the call, clearing his throat before speaking. “H-hello?”

“Oh...hi Sean. I...I didn’t actually think you would answer.” Jenn said a little surprised.

“Uh...yeah.” Sean said looking through the door window. Now that Sean wasn’t sitting next to him, Finn was talking mostly to the camera while leading their Persona character through a date with Ann. They were currently playing the latest Persona game but had once again not butting heads on something. This time about who they should date. No one should be really surprised that Finn wanted Ann and Sean wanted Hifumi. They were supposed to be going for Makoto because Lyla was always the impartial party that got the final word.

Finn met his eye, looking caught and laughed, saying something to the camera. “Um, what do you want?” He didn’t want to sound as harsh as it felt like he sounded but he couldn’t really see why Jenn was calling him now of all times.

“I wanted to talk...about my show. I know they’ve been trying to get in contact with you.”

“Yeah they have.”

“Yeah...it’s going well. We’re on our second season but uh...I wanted to ask if you would do an episode with me. To uh...finally get everything out in the open. Finally.”

Sean has been in the YouTube business for a while and especially in the thick of it now that he can be considered a big-time YouTuber. He knew the rules of making a successful YouTube video. Video’s have to be a certain length to make a difference. Thumbnails have to pop and you have to be exciting and loud on camera. No cursing for at least past the one minute mark. And merch!

He never thought he would have merch that he designed out in the world. Having Jinx, Finn, Penny, and Cassidy modeling for it just makes it so much better. Because god does Finn look hot in their merc.

So of course Jenn would want Sean to be on Hurt Bae. Everyone who knows his and her past. Even if she came out worse hey, Nathan recorded a dead body and he was still racking in the views. 

“Uh...I have to call you back.” Sean said not waiting for her response as he hung up.

He headed back inside, taking the controller from Finn and turning off the game.

“Woah dude I didn’t save!” Finn argued.

“Look, besides the fact I saw you going on a date with Ann when we’re supposed to be going for Makoto, this is important. Jenn...personally called about me coming on her show.”

Finn sat back on the couch, crossing his legs. “Woah..didn't think she had a say in any of that.”

“Yeah.” Sean sat down. “Should we do it?”

“We?” Finn chuckled already reaching for a cigarette. “She ain’t call me. I’m the other man, you’re Hurt Bae.”

Something about that sounded so bitter to Sean and he looked at Finn. “Maybe you could come too.”

Finn chuckled lighting his cigarette. “Nah, this is all you bae.” For some reason that sounded like an insult instead of the sweet endearment Finn usually said to Sean. Finn seemed to pick up on his own tone and eased his shoulders. Scratching at his nose he sat up, looking at Sean. “You gonna do it? I’ll come for moral support if you want.”

Something suddenly seemed off with Finn but Sean couldn’t place what it was. But he suddenly remembered that Finn had liked Jenn. Really liked Jenn.

“I don’t need closure,” Sean pointed out holding out his fingers. Taking a drag, Finn handed over the cigarette, letting the smoke escape his nose.

“Maybe she does.” Finn suddenly sounded exhausted and Sean took a drag of the cigarette himself. “Look uh...we gotta keep filming. Lyla won’t wait forever.”

“Right...” Sean handed the cigarette back to Finn who shook his head and instead he stubbed it out in the ashtray, making sure to move it off-camera.

They resumed filming but the energy was off. Finn was tense, and Sean could see it in the playback of the video.

“Yeah...sorry sweetie.” Finn said as he watched it alongside Sean. “It’s been a long day.”

Before all of this, they had been recording for three hours, which would probably give them a good amount of videos for the coming weeks. 

“It’s fine.” Sean said shaking his head. “I’ll...send it to Lyla and tell her to stop before the last one. We’ll just redo it.”

Though he wasn’t sure how genuine it would come out this time. Playing the same level two times, he wondered if anyone would be able to tell.

“I’m gonna go to bed,” Finn said scratching his hair, his hands running through it. “See you in the morning.”

“Yeah.”

Finn walked off, Squirmy and Jaxs trailing behind him.

Despite both of them having more than enough to live on their own, Finn was still Sean’s roommate. And just to add to the never-ending dating rumors they added two pets to their house Squirmy an all-white ferret and Jaxs a black and white rabbit.

Sean rubbed at his eyes. He was exhausted and didn't want to deal with this. But at this point, he was sure it would never stop until he agreed to do the show. Pulling out his phone, he sent Jenn a phone.

_ I'll do it. _

*

Sean had never filmed a show and Hurt Bae is a real show. Everything was planned out ahead of time. Which is why he’s at the skate park by himself. There are other skaters but not who he usually would be skating with.

He’s just supposed to pretend to look busy till he sees Brody.

It’s awkward though to be pretending to be a real skater while the other full time's skaters watch. Some even try to show off behind him in the camera. Sean doesn't mind but the producers aren’t too impressed by it.

“Just skate around for a while. We’ll keep the best parts.”

A while means almost thirty minutes of doing tricks and trying not to show that skating as of late is a very loose hobby of his now. He’s almost regretting all of this until Brody finally shows up.

“Sean!” Brody greets, camera in hand as Sean lands a move before gliding over to Brody.

“Cut, let’s do that again.” The director said just as Sean is about to get off the board.

They do it three more times, the exact same way, Sean doing three different tricks before gliding to Brody who is waiting.

“Brody, it’s good to see you.” Sean said flipping up his board as he steps off to greet Brody. 

“Same! Same! Come on, let’s go sit and talk.”

“Yeah, let’s go over here.”

The cameras catch them walking towards the bench together.

Taking a seat and making sure the cameras were getting them both in the shot, Brody smiled down at him while Sean laughed nervously.

“You’re a hard man to get in touch with.” Brody laughed, pushing his glasses up.

“Yeah, busier than I’ve ever really been before.” Sean said scratching his head.

“Tell me about it. You and Finn have been on a roll.”

Just the mention of Finn relaxes him. It’s easy to dive into speaking about the male. “It’s really just Finn honestly. His friends, his energy, his...everything. I just really run the business side.”

“Come on, don’t sell yourself short. I watch your channel. You’re just as important.”

No matter how many tell him that Sean wasn’t really sure it would ever stick. Thankfully, Brody changes the subject.

“Let’s go back to the video, on Lyla’s channel. I spoke to Jenn about it. She was surprised that it was even something that existed.”

“Yeah...it wasn’t supposed to come out. Not that it was leaked or anything. But I wasn’t going to post it until she lied about me being the one that cheated.”

“Yeah, we spoke about the lie.” Brody nodded. “That was the only reason you changed your mind.”

Sean nodded, no reason to lie, despite the cameras. “I don’t like drama-”

“But you made the video beforehand.” Brody cut in. He doesn’t mean anything to be harsh, just relying on the facts. That’s Brody and Sean knew that.

“Yeah, we did record it. Because I wanted to hurt her...like she hurt me. But it didn’t make me feel better to do that. It didn’t give me the answer I wanted at the time so I decided to tell Lyla that we weren’t going to post it. Until she lied. After that, I just wanted to clear my name.”

“How come you started hanging out with Finn afterward?”

“He’s a cool guy.” Sean laughed nervously. “He was really nice about the whole situation and all the fans really liked him so we just started playing games together. I mean...if anyone deserves to live the good life it’s Finn.”

Brody smiled at him, giving him a knowing look and Sean blushed under his gaze. “Okay, Sean...there’s a question I’ve been dying to ask you.”

“What?”

“Are you...a furry?”

Sean laughed, face-palming while Brody laughed.

“Let’s take a break.” The producers said and Sean relaxed as Brody sighed happily. 

“Hungry?” Brody asked grabbing his mic pack from behind him and turning it off. Sean followed his lead, turning off his own mic and following him towards the food trucks.

“I got to say, it’s a little clear that you haven’t been professional video despite your own channel, but you’re doing well.” Brody said looking at the menu before looking at Sean.

“Oh, thanks,” Sean said rubbing his arm. “It’s a lot of...the cuts and starting over.”

“You and Finn don’t cut?”

“We usually don’t edit most things out. Which is why we get demonetized a lot.”

Brody laughed waving him off. “It just makes your friendship more genuine.”

He always liked Brody, and while they ate lunch, it was nice to just chat with the man. “You should do a series on Finn.” Sean offered a wide smile on his face. “He’s lived an interesting life.”

“Yeah, a life that he’s very willing to talk about at all time. That’s good and all but the one who is worth a series is you, Sean.” Brody shook his head. “You seriously don’t give yourself enough credit. You went from 30,000 subscribers to 1 million in eight months, to 10 million in two years and counting. No matter who you add, that’s impressive to anyone’s eye.” 

“It’s not just me, we all worked hard to get to where we are.”

Brody laughed. “Dude, take a lesson from Nathan and take a compliment and run with it. But I get what you’re saying. It’s a group effort...a group effort I’m thinking couldn’t be done without you but I see you're the humble type. How about I do a series on just the Game Den in general.”

“That...would be cool.”

“Okay guys.” The producer said coming over. “We’re going to shoot you two parting ways and then Sean we’ll contact you later about meeting up tomorrow.”

With a sigh, Sean nodded and they shoot Brody parting ways with him. He is happy to have Brody as the co-host instead of Nathan or Victoria. He makes everything so much easier to be on camera.

When he can finally leave he just heads back to work. He honesty was busy. They were coming out with their own game: Super Wolf. It would be an 8bit platforming game featuring a superpowered wolf. The story was created by Daniel and most of the artwork and designs of the character were from himself and they were working with a game developer to help create it all.

Preparing for the game had kept him busy and in the meantime, Finn had been having to play on his without him. He was happy to finally getting back to their roots with playing with Finn as everything with the game seemed to be going fine without him.

When he finally made it to their office, Finn was sitting in their open area, chilling with Penny with Squirmy running around across their laps.

“There’s Hollywood.” Penny teased sitting up. “Hey, how did it go?”

“I’m tired,” Sean said flopping down next to Finn who laughed.

“So I guess it went pretty well since you’re always tired.” Finn elbowed him.

Sean pushed him back. “Shut up. I have to go back to actually confront her tomorrow.”

“Damn...sounds intense.” Penny shrugged before standing up. “Where’s that intern with the coffee?”

Finn stood up as well, cradling Squirmy against him. “Quick nap time before we start filmin’?”

“No, I’m good.” He stood up following Finn to their gaming room. They had found a nice place to have their headquarters. It wasn’t too much, with a large open space where they could just hang out with three private rooms. One was Finn’s and Sean’s gaming room. Another room was for Cassidy and Hannah to do their podcast. The red light above the room was glowing, alerting anyone that they were in fact filming. The last room was split for Jinx and Penny. They never recorded at the same time and the room was split in half one side dedicated for makeup and the other for conspiracies. 

On the other side of the open space, he could see Jacob and Anders editing at their computers. More like Jacob was editing with his headphones on while Anders flirted with Ingrid.

“Are they together?” Sean asked as he looked at the two.

“Close, wanna get in on the betting? I say in a week they will be together.”

Sean chuckled. “Nah, I’ll just...let it be.”

Finn chuckled, opening the door for Sean.

While Sean prepared the game, Finn let Squirmy run around the room before sitting down on the couch.

"Are you ready to meet Jenn?"

Sitting down, Sean let out a sigh. "Not...really. I'm a little terrified."

"Why? She ain't gonna do anythin' to you? She don't bite-"

'Unless you ask anyway." Sean finished a small smile playing on his face.

Finn smiled back, leaning back and putting his arm on the back of the couch. "Damn...it seems like forever since then."

"Yeah...Is there anything you want me to say to her? From you?"

"Nah, I ain't got nothing to say." 

Sean wondered if he sounded like that when he lied. "What are you going to say to her?"

"I don't know..." He shrugged picking up the controller. "I...honestly never thought I would have to face her again."

Finn nodded, listening but Sean didn't have any more to say about it. "It's alright sweetie." Finn scratched at Sean's scalp before sitting up. "Let's take your mind off that and change some hearts!"

Sean chuckled reaching over and turning on the camera. It would be nice to get his mind off Jenn for a time.

*

Even though like yesterday everything is planned out ahead of time, where they would meet and what time. He still has to go through the motion of texting Jenn and agreeing to meet.

He thinks he’s ready but he’s not. It must be weird for Jenn to be the main focus for once. He walks up with one camera focused on him and the other on her and Brody.

“Hi Sean,” Jenn said looking a little uncomfortable.

“Hey,” Sean said putting his hands in his hoodie pocket. “You look well.”

She always does and she smiled at him. “You too Sean, do you want to sit?”

“I rather stand.” He’s not sure if it makes him seem like an asshole to do so but he suddenly feels like one.

For once she doesn’t even know where to start and she looks at the producers for help. “Why did you cheat?” One of the producers asks, getting her back on track.

She nodded. “Right...so we’re here to talk about...why I cheated.” She took a deep breath before looking at Sean. “I cheated because...I felt like you weren’t interested. It felt like you weren't invested in our relationship...like I was.”

“You’re saying it’s my fault you cheated?” Sean almost can’t believe the nerve of her.

“I’m not saying it’s your fault but I’m saying you need to take responsibility, that our relationship wasn’t happy,” Jenn said putting her hand on her chest.

Wasn’t happy. “What...How can you say that?”

“Sean we dated for three years and didn’t even move in together.”

This again. “We were in college, what did you want from me?”

“I wasn’t asking for marriage but it always seemed like you weren’t as committed as I was.”

Sean rolled his eyes. “So instead of coming to me with that, you decided to just sleep with a guy!?” He raised his voice pulling himself back. Whenever he got too angry he started to tear up and he could already feel it. “Uh...can I get a second.”

He turned away from her and cameras, sure they would make everyone believe he was crying because he was still interested in this or something. He took a deep breath before looking back at her.

“Why are we here?” Sean finally asked Jenn.

She looked surprised by the question before pushing her hair out of her face. “I wanted to talk...put everything behind us.”

“Everything is behind us,” Sean pointed out with a shrug. “This didn’t happen yesterday this happen two years ago. I don’t want to hurt your feelings...but I haven’t thought about you since that car ride.”

He doesn’t want to hurt her, but he can see that it does just that. It only makes Sean wonder what she wants from him. “Do you need closure?”

“Yeah...” Jenn softly spoke. She was messing with her hair and she only did that when she was nervous. “We dated for three years...I know I hurt you but you just seem so...unbothered by it. Afterward.”

“You weren’t there at the beginning. This didn’t just happen in a blink.” He could almost laugh at him using Finn’s words. “I don’t want you to think that I wasn’t hurt that you would throw away our relationship so easily but you waited too long to reach out for me to care about us anymore.” God that sounded so mean but he wasn’t even sure how else to put it. “I don’t...mean to be mean. I mean I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I’m not mad with you. I...never was. Just hurt that you would or could do that.”

Jenn sniffed, nodding her head. Her eyes were watery but none of her tears spilled out. He was grateful for that. He would never want her to cry for him. She smiled at him, suddenly seeming relieved to hear that Sean wasn’t angry at her.

“I know I’m sorry,” Jenn said rubbing at her wet eyes. “I...I never told you I was sorry did I.”

He shook his head a little happy to hear it but something came to his mind as she finished talking. When there was a break in conversation he licked his lips. He probably shouldn’t ask this...but he couldn’t help it. “Um...what about Finn?” He asked.

She blinked, probably surprised by Sean bringing him up. “I know he’s your...co-host. I never expected you two to get so close...” She chuckled a little before giving him a thoughtful look. “He didn’t mean anything to me. I just-”

“No.” Sean held up his hand to stop her. “Uh, that’s not what I mean.”

“Oh?”

“Why didn’t you ask him here?”

Jenn looked a little confused, looking at Brody for a moment. Brody had been pretty silent throughout their whole encounter but now spoke up. “What about Finn?”

“You wanted closure but what about him.” Sean shrugged.

“Why would the other person need closure?” Jenn seemed to be completely unaware and Sean was sure it was him who was looking confused now.

“Jenn...what were your feelings for Finn? Was it really just sex-”

“Yes-”

“No, seriously. Don’t spare my feelings. What were your feelings to him? You met his friends, you two met up for six months. It was just sex?”

“It was just fun. Finn’s fun to be around, but I’m being honest.”

“Then you’re a shitty person,” Sean said. This was not the right thing to do and he was sure it would not do him any favors but she had to understand. “A shitty, selfish person. Did you ever think about how Finn felt about you? You told him you were single so did it cross your mind that maybe he would fall for you too?”

Jenn blinked, shocked but it was Brody who spoke. “You know...he’s the one that slept with your girlfriend.”

“He didn’t know, because she didn’t tell him. He started to really like you and you just used him like everyone else in his life has and you are too blind to see that. So never mind, I am mad at you, and I’ll probably never forgive you.”

He probably should be recording this himself. All of would and probably could be used against him on the internet to make it more dramatic for views. He took a deep breath, looking at Jenn.

“He liked you. Really liked you. And you just...don’t care. And if anyone deserves to be cared for it’s Finn.”

If anyone deserves closure it’s Finn.

Sean looked from Brody and Jenn. “I’m going to go.”

“Maybe that’s for the best,” Brody said looking between the two. 

Jenn nodded, looking hurt at Sean before walking off with Brody. While the camera crew followed. A producer stayed behind and Sean took off his mic. “I’m not coming back.”

“You don’t want to meet up with her one last night to clear everything up?”

“No,” Sean said handing over the mic pack. “I’m done. Just...let me know when you air the episode.”

He gave the producer a solid nod before walking off to his car.

*

He wanted to forget all about the show but he wasn’t so lucky. They were saving the episode for the season finale so they had to wake for the end of the week. The closer they got the more nervous about it all he got.

Despite Sean’s better judgment, they all watch the episode together. It starts off with Jenn meeting up with Brody, telling a little about his back story on YouTube like she does with every YouTuber guest she has in the channel.

“At least ya got Brody.” Cassidy pointed out. “He’s always a nice guy.”

“Yeah...” Sean nodded, his leg shaking anxiously.

Beside him, Finn put his hand on his thigh, stopping Sean’s jitters. “Relax sweetie.”

“Right...sorry.”

Unlike usual where Jenn and her guest would meet either the cheater or the one that got cheated on and learn more about the relationship before doing some research on where the other was and how they were doing. Sometimes it was really dramatic like Jenn and Chloe the tattoo artist YouTuber had found the cheater cheating on another person. 

Instead, Jenn and Brody just talk about her past relationship with Sean. There’s a pretty good montage of Jenn and him shooting videos together and just being overall in love.

“So what happened?” Brody asked.

“I don’t know...something just started to seem weird. We dated for three years and it still felt like we were stuck in the same stage. I mean there was no going forward. Anytime I suggested moving in with each other, it would just lead to an argument.”

Brody hummed to himself. “You think he was waiting till after college?”

“I don’t know, I honestly didn’t think it would ever come up.”

Though Finn’s hand on his left leg was keeping him from bouncing, he can’t help it when his right leg starts to bounce instead.

“Okay, let’s talk about Finn,” Brody said not able to keep the smile off his face. “Honestly, I can’t even believe the progression everything as gone.”

Beside him Jenn laughed, pushing her hair over her shoulder. “You can’t believe! I never in a million years thought my ex-boyfriend and the guy a slept with would become friends but let alone start doing YouTube together!”

The video cut to Finn and Sean on screen together. “What up Strays!” They said together. “Welcome to the Game Den!”

The others on the couch cheer and smile and Finn squeezed his thigh gaining his attention and embarrassment. It’s a little embarrassing to have clips of him and Finn laughing and smiling together. It’s a few clips of most of their best times for a second before it comes back to Brody and Jenn.

“I’m going to be honest with you Jenn. I am a stray. Totally invested in their channel.”

“Everyone likes to ask me if they're dating?” Jenn giggled and Brody sat up.

“Are they!?”

“Why would I know!?” She laughed, the sound not as grating as Sean it thought it would be to him now. “As far as I always thought, Sean was only into girls.”

“Whatever they are to each other, it’s working on YouTube. He seems to be living his best life, are you sure you want to bring this up?”

“I want closure. I want to tell him...why it all happened.”

The show makes an act of how long it took them to get Sean to say yes. They reenact how long it took Sean to finally say yes. Jenn is on the set of a totally different episode when one of the producers tells her Sean finally said yes. She facetimes Brody to give him the good news.

“I’m still recording an episode, do you mind doing the first meet up by yourself.”

“Yeah of course!”

It will never be normal for Sean to see himself on camera. While Brody narrates to the camera how excited to see Sean, he also briefly mentions that they have met before he records Sean skating.

“I feel like since Max’s video of me skating, everyone thinks that the one thing I love doing the most.” Sean sighed relaxed enough to finally talk about the filming. “They asked me to be at this skate park, they even wanted me to do some big impressive move.”

“Trying to make you look cool, not that you need it.” Cassidy teased.

They continue to watch the video, his segment with Brody and what had been left in and taken out. From the look at it, most of it seemed to be stayed in. As they approached his interaction with Jenn, Sean stood up.

“I’m going to go smoke.”

Finn tried to stop him but Sean brushed him aside and headed out to the balcony. He just needed a moment. He wasn’t sure he could watch that moment over after living through it. After he had left filming he had been so tired that he had taken the rest of the day to sleep.

He took his time smoking a cigarette, just enjoying the view of the beach. He decided not to go back in. Waiting out the rest of the show just smoking and enjoying the nice view of the setting sun.

He got lost in it for a moment before the door slid open and Cassidy smiled at him. “We’re heading out.” 

“Shows over?” Sean asked standing up and looking at the three cigarettes he had smoked in the row and he grimaced but followed her in.

“Yeah, I just wanted to say bye.” She kissed his cheek, a smile on his face. “Finn wants to say something to you.”

Blushing, Sean rubbed the back of his head. “How uh...cringy was it?”

“Not cringe at all!” She chuckled. “Pretty cute actually. Finn’s a lucky guy to have a friend like you.”

Sean gave her a small smile before saying bye to everyone. Finn was in their kitchen, leaning against the counter.

“You didn’t have to defend me,” Finn said looking at Sean a little dreamily. Sean wasn’t sure he deserved it.

“I wanted too,” Sean watched as Finn smiled a little breathless at him before falling back into the couch. “I had too.”

“Dude...I could kiss you right now.” Finn sounded as breathless as he looked and Sean looked at the male, swallowing.

“I...would like that,”

There was no going back and as Finn gave him a curious look, Sean knew he didn’t want to go back.

“What was that?” Finn asked looking surprised.

“I...want you to uh...k-kiss me,” Sean said his voice stuttering at the end. He cleared his throat wanting to avoid Finn’s eyes but also never look away. 

Finn’s gaze softened as he moved closer. “Shit...been waitin’ to hear that from ya for a long time sweetheart. Not gonna lie.”

Letting out a chuckle Sean grabbed Finn’s hand, feeling him squeeze back. “I’ve been waiting to hear myself say too.”

For once, Finn’s cheeks were dusted a light red and he bit his lip before leaning a little closer. Sean met him somewhere along the way and suddenly Finn’s lips were on his.


	5. I saw Finn and Sean break up!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just want to say I really love and appreciate all of the feedback and nice comments left on the last chapter. I hope this chapter holds up to your love. One more chapter to go.

The fifth video is on a Stan account.

He’s not really sure what they are but they are...something.

He’s not sure if it’s something he always knew or just didn’t really comfortable stating but kissing Finn just feels right.

It feels like slipping into a warm bath after a long hard day. Like that perfect moment when the pillow is just the right amount of cool and the sheets feel good against your skin. It’s like a nice cup of freshly made coffee

Home is where his heart is and also where their bed is.

_Their_.

It’s warm and big with Spider-man sheets and Deadpool blankets (because damn it if Marvel won’t let those two be together, then we are goin’ to have’em sleepin’ side to side forever).

Their bed...

It’s strange to think.

They wasted no time moving Finn’s stuff from his room to Sean’s room and now they’re sharing a bed. Kissing each other at night and holding each other in the morning. It’s bliss and fun and...hot.

Finn's pro at it all. Moving his tongue against Sean’s, touching him in just the right places that make Sean shiver and shudder under the male's palm. Sometimes it feels like both of them have been waiting for a very long time just for these moments of kissing or touching.

When they come to work holding hands, Cassidy and Lyla can’t keep the smile off their face. “Finally!” They say at the same time

The others are all pretty positive about it. Jinx jumped up and down with a smile on their face. “We should all do a boyfriend make-over! The fans would love it!”

“Ooh, will you make me look fabulous?” Finn joked with a large smile on his face.

Sean bit his lip not wanting to ruin their fun. “Let’s put a pause on that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe after your make-up line comes out.”

Jinx’s eyes wide. “W-we’re doing it?!”

“Now that Super Wolf is out, we can start focusing on that.” He nodded before walking off with Jinx. “I know you have a lot of ideas.”

“Tons! So many cute names! First, we can release an eyeshadow! Ooh then maybe lipstick and lip gloss! Nail Polish!”

It took Sean a moment to notice that Finn wasn’t following and he stopped to look at him. “Come on, I’m sure Jinx won’t mind naming a shade after you.”

Jinx smiled. “Honey of course! How about McNamara Blue, after those baby blue.”

Finn pretended to swoon, holding his hand to his heart. “As long as you name a sweet brown after the eyes of bae right here.”

Sean blushed before the older male laughed, putting his arm around Sean. “Or maybe a cute blush-”

“Finn...”

“You two are so cute!” Jinx squealed. 

Sean blushed while Finn just held him closer beaming.

*

They have a monthly meeting at the beginning of every month. Officially starting at 5 and unofficially starting at 4:30. The official time is for Daniel and Chris when they get back from school. The unofficial time is for the rest of them to just smoke and chill together. Since it’s summer, they do get to do it earlier. Today’s meeting is officially at 12 with a puff and pass before they call Daniel.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to smoke in front of his brother. Daniel had taken it upon himself to follow in his footsteps and start smoking at sixteen, much like Sean did. Though Daniel hadn't told him that.

His father had been all too happy to tell him about Daniel’s first experience smoking weed and how baked Daniel had gotten himself. His father had put him on speakerphone to just listen to Daniel talking loudly about nonsense trying to pretend he wasn’t high.

It had given Sean a good laugh.

“Guys, let’s bring it together.”

As the others gathered to take a seat, Sean called Daniel on skype waiting for it to connect as he and Chris showed up on their large flat-screen TV.

“Alright guys, we have a few things to discuss,” Sean said crossing his arms and launching into their report for last month. He liked to talk about the bad stuff first, things being demonetized or any copyright claims against them. “We actually did get a claim on your recent review Daniel-”

“Dude! That’s so not fair! We always get claimed!”

“Yeah...most reviews do,” Sean said, rolling his eyes. “Just do what I say and stop putting so many clips of the games in your video. We’ll fight it, but for the time being, we won’t be getting any money from it.”

Daniel huffed but Chris pats his shoulder. “Is there something else we can do about it?”

“An indie gaming company gave us permission to review their latest game so you can do that one. But lay off EA for a while.”

“Dude! Their games suck so much and people love when we rip them a new one!” Daniel argued.

Again Sean sighed. “Yes, we all know that, doesn’t change the fact that you are still going to get claimed by them. Just...focus on your gaming channel for a while.”

With that finally settled he moved on. “But I have some news. We’ve actually been invited to host a panel at VidCon.”

Usually, these meetings seem like they are just for him. The others are pretty stoned so they don’t say anything and just sit and listen. Honestly, he’s sure other than Jacob, Ingrid, Chris, and Lyla the others could care less about anything he’s saying. But this does get everyone's attention.

“Holy shit!” Penny sat up. “Are you serious!?”

Sean nodded. “Everyone, it might have been a last-minute thing honestly, since it’s two months away on August 15th-"

"You're birthday!" Lyla said excitedly.

Sean smiled nodding his head. "Yes and we’ve only just been ask, but we can do it if you guys want.”

“Yes!” They all say at the same time.

Sean smiled rubbing at the stubble on his chin. “I guess we’ll do it. I’ll email them back. We’ll go into getting there later. Any questions about anything, I don’t have anything else.”

“Sean, can uh...can Daniel and I come down early and spend the summer with you and Finn?” Chris asked. From the look on Daniel’s face, he seemed surprised by Chris asking but also looking a little curious as well.

Sean looked at Finn who shrugged. “The more the merrier.” The older male said.

“Ask first, then get back to me,” Sean said. “We’ll end the meeting here.”

With a few goodbyes to Daniel and Chris, they all dispersed and headed out their separate ways. Sean and Finn headed to their gaming room. They had to finish up Persona and while he reached for the controller Finn grabbed his hand.

“Hey uh...are we telling the lovely’s?”

It’s not a question he was expecting and he sat back to look at Finn. “Oh? Uh...do you want to? ”

“Shown’ you off! Of course sweetness!”

“Okay, how do you want to go about it." Sean put down the controller, giving Finn his attention.

"I was thinkin’ we make out on camera.”

Sean scoffed. “Dude, that’s a bit much.”

Finn nodded. “Right...how about a Try Not to Cum Challenge,” Finn smirked at him, placing a hand on Sean’s thigh.

Blushing, Sean looking down at the hand gripping his thigh.

They hadn’t...gone that far. Despite living together it seemed as if they didn’t have the time...despite the clear need and want.

A thought crossed Sean’s mind and he placed his hand on Finn’s. “Um...so if Daniel and Chris come it’ll be pretty crowded at our place.”

“Good thing there’s an open bedroom now.” Finn smiled at him.

“Uh...yeah that’s great.” He also had to tell Daniel and his dad that he was now dating Finn...or whatever this was. “But I was thinking...um about...what will probably not be possible after they stay with us...all summer.”

Finn nodded, humming to himself. “Gonna be a long summer. Gonna have to be creative.”

Sean nodded along. “Right...uh yeah I guess that’s true but...for the f-first time...I was...thinking...s-soonish...” He looked down at the hand on his thigh, the fingers were tapping against the inside of his thigh. Rings, finger tattoos, and nails painted red, Sean slotted their fingers together.

“You ready for that?”

“I-I’m ready for...you-”

Beside him, Finn swayed. “Wooh, baby, be careful what you say...make a guy burst a blood vessel why don't cha.”

Sean let out a nervous laugh, looking away. “So uh...let’s do it as soon as we can.”

In his pocket, his phone vibrated. Not letting Finn’s hand go he used his other hand to pull out his phone. There was a text from Daniel with tons of emoji’s of excitement. 

After reading it he frowned with a sigh. “Maybe...really soon,” Sean said, looking at Finn. “Daniel and Chris have already bought their ticket for tomorrow afternoon.”

Finn sat back. “Tomorrow afternoon...he’s eager.”

“Yeah.” Sean shook his head. 

“But...he’s not the only one,” Finn smirked at him.

If possible, Sean was sure steam would be coming out of his ears.

“So...it sounds like we’ll be playing parents for a while laddie. We might need a little shindig before we have real responsibility.” Finn smiled standing up. “Pool party BBQ later today...then...you and me tonight.”

Sean blushed biting his lip. “Y-yea-” His voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “Yeah...that’s uh...that’s cool.”

“Alright, start spreadin’ the word sweetie, we got an afternoon party to plan!”

*

It’s not a house on the beach like Finn wants, but it’s a two-bedroom with a room converted to a home game studio. It was home and today, it was a home for a slammin’ pool party.

The one thing about parties, they get out of hand pretty quickly. They have a small guestlist for the most part...Sean has a small guest list. He only invites Max, Chloe, Warren...and Jenn as a sign of the hatch being fully buried between them.

He’s sure everyone else's guest list is the reason they’re place is more crowded than it ever has been or should be.

And Sean is remembered why he hates parties. Too loud, too many people and he would rather just be in his bed with Finn sucking his dick then pretending to talk to tons of strangers he vaguely knows.

It had taken’ him and Finn all day just letting the neighbors know that they would be having a party and while some of them were over, it seemed like they didn’t mind now that they had taken the time to at least warn them about the loud noises.

He still felt a little worried about it.

“I bet everyone would love to see that those two are talking,” Lyla said with her arms crossed as she looked across the pool.

Sean had noticed it too. Jenn and Finn talking as they sit poolside. From the look it seems to be a serious talk...maybe the talk Finn had always wanted to have with her and a pit of worry settled into his stomach. How much had Finn liked her? Enough for this talk to...mean something?

Just as it was beginning to fester inside of him, Finn looked up, meeting his eyes before winking at him. Sean blushed, looking away under the heat of his gaze. 

“Careful Diaz, you’re going to get your boyfriend stolen by your ex-girlfriend. Though, it won’t be fucking surprising.” Nathan said bumping his shoulder against Sean. “From a fucking chump like you.”

“Dude, are we in high school?” Lyla rolled her eyes. “Who even invited you?”

“Jenn did.”

“Well...there goes her good points,” Lyla mumbled.

“What?” Nathan turned to face them. “You should be happy I even show my face here. My subscriber count alone boosts this party up to ten fold.”

“Dude, you’re  _ only _ 6 million above us.”

Nathan looked at Lyla before looking at Sean. “Dude, you going to let this bitch talk for-”

“Hey, back off.” Sean stepped forward.

“Or what Diaz?” Nathan pushed Sean back. 

“I’ll kick you out.”

Nathan scoffed. “You couldn’t touch me, Diaz.”

Sean took a step forward. “Watch me.”

“Hold on there stud.” Just a simple hand on his shoulder relaxed him and Sean looked at Finn, suddenly at his side. “Before we go about throwin’ down right here poolside. Why don’t we take a breath and take a step back.”

“Yeah Diaz, step back.”

Nathan pushed and it was suddenly very clear how close he was to the edge of the pool. Sean tipped back, falling into the pool with a splash.

When he resurfaced they were already in the middle of fighting, Penny trying to break them up. “Finn stop!”

He quickly made his way over the edge, helping break up the fight between Finn and Nathan before he finally got himself between them.

They were finally able to break up the face and Lyla pushed Nathan away. “Dude get a clue and get out of here. Freak.”

“This isn’t over,” Nathan growled before pushing past the crowd that gathered.

Sean looked at Finn’s face, cringing at the sight of Finn’s blackin’ eye and busted lip. “Dude, come on.”

He helped lead him inside and to the kitchen. Everyone seemed to have cleared out since the fight and Sean grabbed some ice to put on his eye.

“You look good wet sweetie.” Finn teased as Sean placed the ice on his eye.

“Well...it is a pool party.” He shook his head. “Probably wouldn’t have gotten in any way if someone hadn’t pushed me...thanks for defending me.”

“Always sweetie. To the end and shit.”

Sean smiled, before removing the ice from Finn’s face. “So uh...I was thinking, maybe we should come out together at VidCon. At the panel?”

“It’ll be a pretty big crowd. Dramatic of you really to suggest it.” Finn crossed his arms, a smile playing on his face. “You up for that?”

“With you there...always s-sweetie.”

That...was probably the lamest thing ever and to save himself from Finn’s glance he put the ice pack on his face but Finn dodged it, leaning forward and capturing Sean’s lips. Their kiss broke and Sean shivered, feeling a little dizzy. "Fuck sweetie...I-"

"Sean!"

Surprised, Sean turned to see Penny running into the kitchen. "The cops are here!"

"What? Why?" Sean separated himself from Penny before walking after them. They headed to the front where Nathan was talking to the cops. 

"That's him! That's the one." Nathan had his phone out, recording it.

Upon seeing them, one of the cops turned and began to approach him. "Sir, put your hands behind your back." 

For a moment Sean thought he was talking to him but instead he walked past him and grabbed Finn's arm.

"Oh boy, here we go." Finn groaned rolling his eyes but letting the cop drag him off.

"Officer you have this backward," Lyla said coming up quickly. There was a crowd forming. "Finn didn't start the fight. It was self-defense."

"Yeah right." Nathan snapped. "He assaulted me!"

"That's not true!" Sean snapped.

"Back up sir." The other cop said stopping them from advancing.

Sean watched as the other push Finn to the car, being harsher than necessary. "Hey stop!" Sean snapped.

"Careful officer, he might have drugs on him," Nathan growled out.

"Dude, he's wearing fucking swim trunks," Sean growled back.

"Relax sweetie." At Finn's tone, Sean turned to look at him. He didn't look or sound tense at all, completely relaxed as the officer patted him down. Finn smiled at him. "We should get handcuffs, kinky shit like that."

"Dude..." Sean wanted to say it wasn't the time to talk about that but he couldn't help the nervous pit in his stomach.

Coming up, Warren held out his phone to the officer. "Officer could you please look at this. If anyone assaulted anyone first it's Nathan. And I am one of many who recorded it happen." Sean could see that Warren had actually been recording a large part of the party and just happen to get when Nathan and him were arguing before Finn came and joined him. It was weird to watch himself being pushed into the pool and before Finn could even take a step to Nathan, Nathan was swinging. The fight took off from there.

"T-that's not true!" Nathan snapped putting his phone down. "They assaulted me first."

The cop holding Finn continued to put handcuffs on Finn before slipping him into his car while the other one watching the video pulled out his radio. "Seargent, could you come to this location...we have YouTuber situation."

*

Sean usually hated the idea that everything that happens is always video taped and put on the internet but because everyone recorded the fight, it’s clear to see Nathan had instigated it. Nathan pressing charges were dropped and Finn doesn’t even plan to press charges back. They’ve mostly dodged a bullet.

But only mostly.

“Dude, I can’t believe you guys had a party without me!” Daniel argued upset as he sat down at the table. “That’s so uncool.”

“Right, because that’s the last thing we need.” Jinx rolled their eyes. “Having an underage drinking really get us in trouble.” They glared at Daniel who hung his head. “I think this talk is long overdue. We need to start thinking about how famous we actually are. With 12 million subscribers now! We can’t keep doing stupid shit like fighting at pool parties or drinking at sixteen. So, I took it upon myself, sorry Sean, to hire a YouTube PR person.”

Hannah scoffed. “That’s not a real job.”

“Actually it is.”

They looked at a handsome man coming to join Jinx. “Everyone, this is Mark Jefferson. He helps YouTubers with PR and getting them out of deep shit.”

“Are we in deep shit?” Finn asked, leaning back in his chair.

“No, but at the uncaring rate you all seem to be in, it’s only a matter of time.” Mark crossed his arms. “Do you all know that you have more than just the majority of your videos demonetized.”

“Uh...dude, that’s why we have ad reads, merch, a fucking game.” Cassidy shook her head. 

“Right, I will admit, Sean you are doing a great job working with what you have here. But you’re just letting YouTube play you instead of playing the YouTube game. Ad friendliness gets you everywhere, just look at Nathan. And at the moment, you’re putting videos on a channel that won’t protect you if the mob comes after you.” Mark pointed at Finn. “If it hadn’t been videotaped, you would be in jail, especially with your record. Then where will you all be? You think whenever you get a comment about someone having the notification bell on but not getting a notification is some accidental glitch in the system? The YouTube algorithm isn’t for people like you.”

“But...we’ve been doing fine since...despite all that.” Chris pointed out.

“Yeah, because the face of your channel is Mr. Diaz. That and everyone is just waiting to confirm if the rumor that Mr. Diaz and Mr. McNamara. You may have a lot of subscribers, but they are only a click away from being there or not.”

Silence hovered over them and Sean looked at Finn. For once he didn’t look relaxed or at ease as he always did. Sean had never seen Finn look so tense.

“Yo, how much is this going to cost.” Hannah asked, “because you look expensive.”

“I am expensive, but I am worth it. Just ask Victoria, I bet none of you even remember the scandal she went through four years ago.”

At the mention of it, it did come back to Sean’s mind. That was back when he was still just starting out but on the platform nonetheless. She had said on record lied about being raped, and Sean was actually surprised that not only had he forgotten that but she had continued to grow since then.

“That’s damaged control.” Jacob pointed out. “You helped after the fact, but nothing has ever happened with us.”

“Keyword, yet.” Mark said. “But honestly, with the cracks in the foundation, it’s only a matter of time before four out of the twelve of you will mess up and do something destructive.”

Four out of the twelve, they all had a feeling they knew who he was talking about and already, he had lost Cassidy, Penny, Hannah, and Finn’s vote....well, maybe not Finn.

“I think he’s got a point.”

“You can’t be serious.” Hannah scoffed.

Finn just shrugged. “Okay, ignore the four out of twelve bullshit he spewin’ no matter how true it is and focuses on the fact that goin’ straight can only help us.” He turned to look at Sean, sitting up in his seat. “Sweetie, how many times you are jumping through hoops just to get a strike off our channel. We all almost had three strikes two fuckin’ months ago for some bullshit. YouTube don’t got our back, and it’s keeping us for gettin’ what we’re due. And I ain’t just talking about money.”

They all know what he’s talking about. The trending page, YouTube Rewind, an of the cringy award shows that they’ve never been nominated for despite being big on the channel. 

And then it was the help they didn’t get from the company they worked for. Any copyright strike they got could take months to get off even when they were in the right. It had been a scary time when they almost had their channel suspended. The signs had always been there, especially the bigger they got. YouTube was not on their side.

“They use us and don’t got our back-”

“So you want to just what? Cover up your tattoos? Censor our words, conform to authority.” Hannah snapped.

Finn rolled his eyes. “I’m not sayin’ change us. Maybe just...listen to what this guy-”

“Call me Mr. Jefferson.” Mark interrupted.

It seemed like some sort of test had been placed and for a moment, Finn just looked at the man before knocking his knuckles on the desk. “Maybe we should listen to Mr. Jefferson. At least...for a little while.”

Sean was getting that feeling that something was happening right in front of him that he was missing. He was suddenly reminded of him and Finn’s first playthrough of Until Dawn (they still weren’t getting money off of any of those videos). Where a character had to make a choice and there would be unforeseen consequences no matter what choice Sean made. Because from the looks of it, everyone was waiting for him to make the choice.

He looked at Ingrid. “Do we...have it in the budget?”

“We’ve done very well this month. With the game and your appearance on Jenn’s show. Views are up.” Ingrid said with a soft smile.

“Again, don’t see why we need this tool?” Hannah mumbled under her breath.

Sean sighed looking at the man. “Um, Mr. Jefferson-”

“ _You_ can call me Mark, Sean.”

Sean froze, looking at Mark who looked back with a calm expression. Across from him Finn also looked at Mark, his expression going from calm to chilly very quickly.

“Um...Mr. Jefferson, can you give us a moment to discuss amongst ourselves.”

He seemed slightly unimpressed by Sean not calling him by his first name but nodded. “I’ll stand over there and pretend not to listen.” He teased, walking off towards the door.

Sean expected Hannah to be the first one to speak but it was actually Daniel. “Dude, is anyone else getting serial killer vibes from that guy?”

“Uh...yeah,” Lyla said rubbing her arm. “Jinx, where did you find him?”

“Jenn told me about him.” Jinx crossed their arms. “After the episode with Sean, she actually had a lot of backlash. People accusing her of doing it for views, and also for not taking Finn’s feelings into account. She knew before it was aired that it would so she hired Mr. Jefferson to help her through it when it eventually came out. She still took a hit, but it wasn’t as bad because of what she learned from Mr. Jefferson. She swears by him. So does Chloe and actually Brody does too.”

“Brody?” Sean asked,” what would he need this guy for?”

“He didn’t say, I didn’t ask. The point is, and the one I’m trying to make is, the bigger you are the harder you fall. He said four out of twelve but I think anyone of us, even the ones not on camera can end up offending someone and we’ll be scrambling to fix it. Jenn got lucky because she had Mr. Jefferson and YouTube on her side. We don’t have YouTube on our side, and they would be all too happy to let us burn if our channel came under fire.”

Sean frowned looking at the others. “Anyone else have anything else to say on the matter.”

_Everyone_ had something to stay on the matter. Hannah was still against it along with Penny, Daniel, and Cassidy. Even Chris seemed a little hesitant about hiring him. “I mean...I’m sure he could help...but...I don’t know. I guess I agree with Daniel about the serial killer vibe.”

Jinx, Lyla, Jacob, Ingrid, and Finn think they should hire him.

It’s down to Anders and Sean.

“I think we should hire him,” Anders said at the same time Sean speaks.

“I...don’t.”

For some reason, everyone hears him. “Woah! Seriously, you agree with me!” Daniel stared at his brother with big eyes.

“I don’t think he’s a serial killer enano.” He rolled his eyes at Daniel before looking at the others. Mostly Finn. “I think we’re doing fine...trying to be optimistic for once.”

He frowned as he looked at Finn afraid to...be on opposite sides of him.

Finn shrugged, reaching out and patting his thigh, giving it a squeeze. “Optimism looks good on you, sweetie. But...we do have a tie.”

Sean nodded before he stood up. “I’ll get the coin.”

Since it’s always an even number they need a tiebreaker. Because of that, they commissioned a tiebreaker coin.

There’s a YouTuber, Coin Master, who makes cool coins. Sean would count the channel as a just satisfying to watch channel like when you watch someone restore an old painting or one of the channels where they bake quietly with cute baking equipment or that one channel that makes knives out of weird things.

There’s no real person behind the channel. Just hands.

Sean had commissioned a coin to be made by Coin Master. There’s a whole video of it being made. A black and gold coin with their channel logo on one side and their animals all cuddled up together on the other side.

It’s weighted evenly and their tiebreaker. It even has its own velvet box.

“Heads is yes, tails is no,” Sean said holding the coin out.

There are rules that come with the coin. Sean is the only one who can flip it and if it’s not caught then it’s okay as long as it lands on the ground. Any interference before it hits Sean’s palm or ground means an automatic re-due.

He can see Mark looking curiously from the door before Sean flipped the coin. They were all watching before Sean let it land in his palm and flipped it down onto the back of his other hand. After a moment he revealed what was under his hand.

Heads.

“The coin has spoken.”

Jinx jumped up and down. “I’ll go tell Mark!”

“Too late, I already heard,” Mark said with a smile coming over. “Ears like a bat. So, shall we get started? I would like to interview you all, starting with the lovely Jinx here.”

Jinx smiled. “We can use my room!”

“Our room!” Penny corrected.

The other dispersed and Sean headed to the game room with Finn, Daniel, and Chris.

“Awe, come on pups, no need to pout,” Finn said with a teasing smile. “That’s the luck of the flip.” 

“Yeah yeah...” Daniel rolled his eyes before sitting on the couch. “So! What should we play?”

“Just a sec, gotta have a word with big brother.” Finn put an arm around him steering them both towards the door.

Sean let himself be steered out and towards the kitchenette. “What’s up?” Sean asked, deciding to grab a coffee. 

“So...what do you think about Mr. Jefferson...or I mean Mark?” Finn asked.

Sean shrugged. “She’s kind of stuck up, not sure his job is real but...you know California full of possibility to make it big.” 

“Right...usually I would be on your side...but yesterday was uh...close call you know.”

Sean looked at Finn’s black eye remembering. Without the camera’s around Finn could have been in jail. “I get that...are you okay?”

“You worried about me? What? You got a crush on me or something?”

Sean scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, a huge crush...can’t even stand it.”

Finn laughed leaning forward and kissing Sean’s cheek. “Sorry, we missed our chance, last night.”

“It’s fine...I mean...Daniel and Chris won’t be sharing a room with us. So it’s not like it’s impossible.”

“That is true.” Finn nodded. “Just tell me when you’re ready.”

Sean blushed under Finn’s gaze. When he was ready? “I’m always ready.

“Really?” Finn asked and Sean blinked. 

“D-Did I say that out loud?” He could feel his face heating up and Finn laughed before kissing him on the cheek.

They began to head back when Mark came over to them. “I’m done with Jinx, I would like to speak to you next Sean.”

“Oh...sure.” He looked at Finn who smiled. 

“Have fun sweetie.”

Sean rolled his eyes but followed Mark into Jinx and Penny’s room.

“Okay Sean, this is just a chance to get to know each other. I have to say I’m not really one for gaming channels so I can’t say that I’ve watched any of your work personally, but I will catch up on some of your videos tonight.” Mark said once he took his seat. Sean took his seat as well. 

“So...let’s get down to business. Tell me about yourself.”

Sean nodded and launched into a little bit about himself. He wasn’t really sure what Mark was looking for but he spoke on what he was sure Mark could find online if he really worked. But as he spoke, Sean couldn’t help but see how much Mark was listening, cocking his head to the side and nodding at certain points.

“Fascinating. I must say Sean I am very impressed by what you’ve been able to accomplish here.”

“Oh...thanks.” Sean rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s really an effort. Finn-”

“Couldn’t do this without you. You must give yourself more credit.”

“Yeah...so I’ve been told,” Sean said with a shrug.

“Jinx has told me that you have a degree?”

“In art. Lyla also-”

“Art! Yes, you do look like an artist. I am a photographer myself. Well until I got into helping young people like you.”

“You mean like us?” Sean corrected.

Mark shook his head. “No, I mean you, Sean. I can see, you are an extraordinary person and if I’m being honest, I would hate to see all this hard work being threatened because of who you film with.”

“They aren’t as bad as they look.” Sean pointed out. “Face tattoos, piercings, they aren’t bad people.”

“Yes I-”

“And any one of us can make a mistake, not just them.” Not just Finn.

“I understand what you’re saying...I only want to help you in case things go badly here. I hope you understand that I am only here to help.”

Sean nodded. “Uh...sure.”

Mark nodded before standing up. “Okay, that’s all I need for right now.”

With another nod, Sean followed Mark to the door, letting him open it for him before he headed out. He spotted Finn and Daniel playing ping pong together. They had been able to see the whole conversation.

“Sean, it was very nice chatting with you,” Mark said putting his hand on Sean’s back.

“Yeah,” nodding his head, Sean headed over to Daniel and Finn.

One by one Mark called them all in to talk. Some going quickly and others taking a while. At the rate it seemed to be going, Finn was going to be last.

“Do you want me to wait up?” Sean asked leaning against the couch beside Finn.

“Nah, take the puppies out. I’ll meet you at home.”

He didn’t want to be pouty about it but he nodded. Finn seemed to catch on and smiled kissing him. “Sweetness I ain’t goin’ nowhere anytime soon. I wanna go home to bed just as much as you do, but we have time. Trust me.”

The more Finn talked the more his face heated up.

“Dude!” Daniel snapped, popping their bubble. “Stop flirting and come on.”

Rolling his eyes, Sean stood up and grabbed Finn’s hand. “I’ll see you at home.” Putting on a brave face he leaned forward and kissed him first.

Finn kissed him back, a smile on his face before they broke the kiss. “Damn, sweetie. You don’t know what you do to me.”

“Come on!” Daniel grabbed him and pulled him away.

*

Daniel pulled him all over till they finally found a place that they wanted to eat. He thought dealing with Daniel when he was younger was a handful but now that he was a teenager it only seemed to get worse.

They but heads a few times through the night but Chris was a nice relaxing buffer. Never the less, Sean was happy to be with his brother. Overall it was a fun night and they got home after Finn.

"Hey, you should have said you were done, we could have met up with you," Sean said as Daniel and Chris headed to their private game room. Finn was sitting on the couch looking a little tense. "What's wrong?' He sat down next to him and it was then that Finn finally looked at him. A smile eased on his face and he eased back into the cushion. 

"Nothing, sweetie, nothing," Finn said putting his hand on the back of Sean's neck. "Yeah I should have...didn't think I would be back so late."

"Did you just get here?"

"Uh yeah...that's...Jefferson is a talker."

Something seemed to be off but nothing Sean could really place. When he started to ask, Finn looked at him, smiling at him. "Let's go play with Daniel and Chris."

Without another word, he was up and heading to the office turned game room.

Sean watched him go for a moment before standing up and following Finn.

*

The rest of the June and July went by painfully slow with Jefferson there every day in the office. He seemed to hover everywhere, during ever recording even though all parts of editing. Making changes, pointing things out, and micromanaging every little thing that they had to do.

Every Friday he had some sort of lecture planned out about how to deal with any drama that came up and how to do damage control. Sean felt like he was back in college sitting in a lecture, it was useful information, about how to work the YouTube system and how to not necessarily how to get away with anything but to not let any mishap that may happen in the future affect them too much. And how to bounce back from it.

While what Jefferson was preaching did seem to help, in June and July they didn't have any copyright strikes or demonetizations and only with a few things being taken out in their videos. But Sean still felt a little weird about it.

Jefferson was a weird guy. Finding some sort of connection with Sean because they were both 'artist' as Jefferson liked to say. He always wanted to talk about photography and paintings and concepts that Sean hadn't even thought about since graduating from college. It was times like this that Sean wished he was as blunt as Lyla and Hannah, but once he got stuck with Jefferson there didn't seem to be an out until Jefferson allowed it.

There was also something weird going on with Finn. He seemed to be pulling away a lot around the office. He was still touchy and dropping cute nicknames in front of the camera but when they were done, he seemed to be keeping his distance. Though...Sean wasn't quite sure if that really was the case. Between Jefferson keeping him distracted and Daniel hanging off Finn like he was the second coming, they didn't have much time between each other when the cameras weren't around.

At this point, Sean couldn't wait for VidCon.

"You're coming too?" Sean asked looking at Jefferson as he sipped his espresso. 

"Yes of course," Mark said. "VidCon is crawling with opportunities to get stuck in sticky situations."

"Doesn't mean you need to come with," Jinx said annoyed.

Sean couldn't help but wonder if they were regretting hiring Mark now. It sure seemed like everyone who had once been on his side was now beginning to get tired of him....except for Finn who seemed to stand by his decision.

"Trust me, it is for the best."

Sean took the chance to slip away before Jefferson tried to corner him and he found Finn rearranging the games that were displayed behind them. "Hey, Finn."

Turning, Finn forced a smile. "Hey sweetie, what's up."

Sean's excitement slowly died down at the lackluster response. "Finn uh...I was thinking about VidCon. And coming out."

A look crossed Finn's face and he rubbed at his mouth. "Oh uh...yeah."

"Someone is bound to ask the question, so I think...maybe we should just say yes this time. We don't need to kiss or anything but something small should be enough for them."

Finn nodded along but not meeting Sean's eyes. "You think this is a good idea?"

Blinking Sean looked at Finn. "What do you mean?"

There must have been something in his voice because Finn looked up to meet him. "Actually...I think a kiss would be better." Finn smiled at him. "Go big or go home, you know."

Sean nodded, a small smile playing on his face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Tired." Finn rubbed at his nose. "How's your boyfriend?"

It had quickly become the nickname for Jefferson because of the amount of time he spent with Sean. Sean wasn't sure why the thought that Mark was just being a pretentious dick by only thinking Sean was the only one worthy enough to speak too.

"He says he's tired." Sean offered in response. He reached out and grabbed Finn's hand. Pulling him close they shared a kiss. Two months since their first kiss they still hadn't gone all the way. It just seemed like Finn had suddenly gone cold towards him and only went as far to kiss Sean, and even those seemed to be thinning.

"Are...are we okay?"

He hated how broken his voice sounded but any shame from it quickly disappeared as Finn put his hand on the back of Sean's head and kissed him almost hungrily. Sean moaned into it, kissing back just as needy.

He wasn't sure if Finn had meant this to be just a small kiss but it was quickly becoming more needy, desperate as if they would never be kissing again.

Sean never wanted it to end so he wrapped his arms around Finn's neck, moving him back until his back hit the wall, licking into Finn's mouth. He didn't want to break the kiss but as Finn's hand squeezed his waist he pushed him back a step till their lips disconnected.

They panted each other's air, Finn's face was flushed and Sean was sure his was as well. "W-we're okay." Finn finally panted out as his hands slipped from Sean's hips. He brushed past Sean before leaving the game room.

Sean watched him go. It sure didn't feel like they were okay.

*

VidCon was just as crowded as it always is, but Sean appreciated it a little more now. The Game Den has it’s own panel.

“Thanks for the question,” Sean said leaning back from the mic. The panel was going better than he thought it would. People asking them questions about Super Wolf or any upcoming projects.

The furry question had only come up once and so far the age-old question hadn’t come up at all. But Sean knew it was only a matter of time.

Standing off to the side, he could see Jefferson watching them. Or...more like watching him.

"God, he's a creep," Lyla mumbled away from her mic. "When can we stop having him around."

"I think maybe after VidCon," Sean said just as low. "Tonight."

They continued to take questions, a girl coming up looking nervous. Her hair was dyed red and she looked to be dressed pretty punkish.

Clearing her throat, she finally asked.  “Are you two dating?”

There it was. The question and the others around Finn and Sean sat up. They all knew the plan, and seemed just as eager as Sean's beating house for this very moment. He opened his mouth to speak but Finn beat him to it.

“Nah, sweetheart,” Finn said with one of his charming smiles. “Sean and I are just buddies. He would never date someone like me, isn’t that right laddie.”

Sean felt...frozen. Surprised by Finn's answer and he couldn't help but look at Finn who didn't meet his eyes. 

“So...are you single?” Sean looked back up at the fan who is still standing there. While the crowd oohs and cheers at her boldness, a light blush on her cheek as she looks directly at Finn.

And suddenly, Sean felt his throat go dry. 

“I’m actually married to a sweet little lady called Mary Jane,” Finn said with a wink.

It gets a few laughs and Sean looked at Finn hurt and confused and...he wasn't even sure. The rest of the panel seemed to skate over his conciseness as he tried to figure out what had happened to change his mind. To go back on their plans like they were nothing...like they had not even happened at all.

"Sean."

Lyla elbowed him and he jumped looking at her before looking at the new fan at the mic. "I'm sorry."

"I asked...is it your birthday?"

Blinking Sean knew it was a trick question. He didn't need for it to be confirmed before everyone is already singing Happy Birthday to him.

It...doesn't help his mood, especially when Finn sits there quietly beside him.

The rest of the panel goes smoothly and Sean sits and answers questions. When it finally ends they get to spend sometime signing merchandise and take pictures. It’s all beginning to drag but he tries his best to be happy.

When they finally break Sean grabbed Finn’s arm. “Can I talk to you? Alone?”

“Sure, lead the way.” 

Sean sighed, leading him to a secluded area. He made sure they were alone before frowning, looking at Finn.

"I...don't understand," Sean said shaking his head. "Why...did you do that?"

Licking his lips, Finn looked down at his feet. "Sorry...I...I wanted to talk about it with you but...there wasn't any time. I...think we should stop."

The lump in his throat was beginning to grow and he swallowed. "W-what do you mean?"

Finn let out a sigh and continued to avoid Sean's eyes. "I think we should stop...this between us."

"W-why?"

"Just...not workin' out."

Not working out. He wanted to say more but Finn cut him off. "Look sweetie it's...not workin' out. Not like I thought. So before we uh...take this any further we should break it off before someone gets really hurt."

Someone was already getting hurt, but it didn't seem to be something Finn was aware of...or caring about.

He didn't want to cry, but his eyes were starting to water. Not wanting to cry in front of Finn he left, almost running into his brother as he left.

"Woah, Sean where are you going?"

Sean ignored him, leaving as quickly as he could.

*

He just wanted a moment to himself, and though the dressing room VidCon had given them probably wasn't the best hiding spot at least he would get a few minutes alone. He had thought maybe Daniel would find him first, or maybe Lyla. It's none of them and instead, Mark sits next to him.

"I'm sorry for your break-up."

Sean flinched, looking up at him. "H-How do you-"

"VidCon isn't a private place Sean." Mark went into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone, pulling up YouTube and showing Sean a video.

It's was shot far away that they couldn't be heard but it was clear what was happening. Finn breaking up with him. It felt like it was an out-of-body experience to watch himself get dumped on camera. He had to look away. "I-I don't know what happened..." He found himself saying. "I thought everything was going fine."

"I'm sorry this had to happen today." Mark moved a little closer but Sean ignored him. "But...maybe this is for the best."

Sean looked up, surprised by what Mark was saying. "What are you talking about?"

"Besides the fact that Finn isn't the best influence for your channel, your subscriber count would have taken a hit if you would have come out."

He was starting to think he was having some sort of stroke because he couldn't understand what Mark was saying. "What are you-"

"Since the beginning, of you and Finn confronting Jenn, everyone has been waiting to see you two together. What do you think will happen once you two finally get together?"

"Wh-who cares!?" Sean snapped. "You think I care about losing subscribers when it comes to Finn?"

Mark looked taken back and Sean stood to leave but the older male grabbed his hand to stop him. "Sean, don't throw your future and life away for this guy. You and your channel are better than him. Better than most of them."

"Who cares about the channel!?" Sean snapped pulling himself away. "You think I care at all about a stupid YouTube channel? I'm a good YouTuber because of Finn, because of all of them. And you don't know that. Like everyone else, you don't see how great Hannah, Cassidy, Penny, and especially Finn. They're great people, they bring something new to YouTube that has been lacking from the white bread being produced every day. This...this has been a mistake." Sean said shaking his head. "Mr. Jefferson we're going have to let you go."

Mark looked at him. "I'm...I'm sorry?"

"We have to let you go. We don't need you anymore. You've been helpful and-"

"Sean, you can't be serious. There's still work to be done. With Finn now out of the picture we have to work on getting the other filth-"

"Woah, what?" Sean blinked. "Finn's not...not out of the picture."

"Sean...he...he dumped you. That is quite clear. You honestly want to keep him around?"

Sean frowned hadn't thought that far ahead. "I...I would have at least ask before. Just because he doesn't want me...doesn't mean he doesn't want this. Everyone else...they're his family. I wouldn't abandon him, any of them just because we didn't work out."

Mark just stared at him before he laughed. "You're...you're stupid. So fucking stupid. Your channel will go under if you keep any of those hoodlums around. One of them will mess up and you'll all go under."

"Then we'll go under together." Sean pointed out. Despite his aching heart, he stood strong, glaring at Mark.

Mark looked back at him before shaking his head. "You're naive and stupid. All of you."

Sean watched him storm out expecting just to see him leave through the door...not having to push his way past the others.

Taken aback from their presence he looked at them all. "G-guys." Even Finn was there, looking at him sheepishly. "How long were you there?"

"After you said you didn't care about the channel," Penny said. "Damn, didn't know that's how you felt."

"I care about the channel." Sean quickly clarified. "Just...the people behind the channel, not how well it does or doesn't. We could ave 100 million subscribers or 5...I wouldn't give it up." He looked at Finn who avoided his eyes for a moment. "I...I wouldn't want to give up on any of you."

"Even though we're fuck ups?" Cassidy asked. She nodded her head to Finn and Sean gave her a curious look. "Even if we thought you would do better without us."

Something was coming together and Sean looked at Finn again with a new look. "I wouldn't want to ever do it without you."

Finn met his eyes and Sean stepped forward. "Finn can we...talk alone."

"Uh...sure," Finn said.

The others left slowly, Daniel giving Sean one last look before shutting the door, leaving Finn and Sean.

Going up to him, Sean grabbed Finn's hand, pulling him to sit down on the couch. "You...started acting weird after your first meeting with Jefferson. What did he say?" That had to be root, and from the way Finn shifted, he knew he had hit the problem right on the head.

"Nothin' sweetie he-"

"Finn." Sean cut him off, squeezing Finn's hand. "Whatever he said isn't true."

Finn scoffed. "Ain't it sweetie. You...deserve greatness...we're just...holdin' you back. I'm just holdin' you back."

"Dude...that's not true at all." Sean forced Finn to look at him. "You've been since the beginning. How could you...ever think you were holding me back?"

"You're the one YouTube wants to show off. Any solo project you do, it ends up on the trending page. But when I show my mug...they wouldn't give two shits about me and with you with me...they don't give two shits about you."

"Then fuck'em," Sean said with a shrug. Finn tried to look away but Sean stopped them. "I mean it, Finn. If...our channel goes down in flames I'll go down with it. Happily, beside you. And some prick with a fake job isn't ever going to make me think differently. Because I...I love you, Finn."

Finn looked at him before ducking his head. For once it seemed like the roles were reverse, Sean the strong confident one while Finn seemed embarrassed and unsure. "Damn...sweetie. I...I'm an idiot."

"Yeah," Sean smiled ducking his head down to look at him. "But my idiot if...if you want to...do that again."

Finn chuckled, closing his eyes for a moment and Sean spotted a few tears escaping his eyes. "Uh...yeah. I would uh..like that." When Finn finally lifted his head, Sean spotted his flushed cheeks and red eyes. "I...I love you too man. I'm...I'm so fucking obsessed with you it's not even funny sometimes." He laughed nervously anyway. "I just...just want to do what's best for you."

"Let me decided what's best, not some thirty-year-old prick with hair plugs."

Finn laughed before reaching out to cup Sean's face, a smile on his lips before he leaned forward and kissed Sean. They broke it for a moment, resting their forehead against each other.

"I love you, sweetie."

"I love you too."


	6. 5+1=Love

The sixth video becomes the number one on the trending page.

His birthday and VidCon pass without any more incidents. The summer ends and Daniel and Chris go back to settle. Sean had been so willing to forget everything about the oddness of VidCon that he had completely forgotten the plan of coming out.

Of course, he would have this thought in the middle of making out with Finn.

He pulled away, Finn chasing after him with his lips and Sean had to put his hands on his chest to stop him.

Finn stopped right away, giving Sean a curious look. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you still want to...come out?” Sean asked looking into Finn’s blue eyes.

Finn, frowned, probably remembering what had happened when they had tried at VidCon and Sean kissed his cheek, to get his mind off of it.

He didn’t want Finn to think about that as Sean barely spared it a thought himself especially after they had gone to their room together after to make up.

Lyla always liked to tease him that while virginity probably wouldn’t be as great as movies and stories liked to put it out to be, but make-up sex was always the best.

They hadn’t really had a fight, so maybe it couldn’t really be considered make-up sex but whatever it was, it was great.

“You wanna try again?” Finn asked as Sean sat back to look at him.

“I would be okay with it if you are.” Sean said.

Finn put his hand on the back of Sean’s head. “Sweetie, I’ll fuckin’ tell the world about us if you want.”

Sean couldn’t stop the smile on his face even if he tried.

*

Lyla turned away from her computer to face Finn and Sean. “What are you talking about again?”

“We’re going to come out,” Sean said opening a bag of popcorn. He held it out for Lyla and she grabbed a handful. “To the fans, about where our relationship is now.”

She nodded, crossing her legs. “Ideas?”

Sean sat back on the couch he and Finn had dragged over to sit before her. 

“What if we go back to our roots?” Sean asked tossing popcorn and catching it in his mouth. “Our first video together was a Try Not to Laugh.”

“Technically, your first video was exposing Jenn.” Lyla pointed out. To spite her, Sean threw popcorn at her.

Finn nodded. “We haven’t done a try not to laugh in a while.” He opened his mouth and Sean tossed popcorn into his mouth. “Let’s try it out.” He winked at Sean before standing up, grabbing his hand and they led off together. Sean didn’t catch the smile on Lyla’s face.

*

They hadn’t done a Try Not to Laugh Challenge in a long time but it’s just as fun as the first one they had done together. 

“Hey Strays, we’re doing the Try Not to Laugh Challenge,” Sean said with a smile. “Just a break from the games and having a few laughs together with my...my uh...” He blinked, looking at Finn. “What...are we?”

Finn made a small face. “I...don't really do labels. But I’ll be anything you want me to be sweetie.”

“Right...okay.” Sean said nodding his head. “We’ll just move on.”

They watch a few funny videos and like before it seemed to be awkward at first, though Sean was sure it was all him. He couldn’t help it, not sure how to show everyone that he loved Finn.

Finn slid his hand on Sean’s thigh and Sean looked at him. His anxiety falling away before he put his hand on Finn’s hand, relaxing.

They laughed at a few videos together, the ‘challenge’ not really a challenge when Sean tried his best not to laugh at the oddness of vine.

He couldn’t help but smile at boy recreating the old Chef Boyardee where the can rolls after the kid after their mom says that they can’t, with a twist of the mom thinking the kid stole it.

“I loved that commercial.”

“I love you.” Finn said with a wink.

Sean rolled his eyes. “Dude, can’t you be a little more...I don’t know natural. That sounds so...weird.”

Finn just chuckled. “We gotta put it somewhere sweetie. So far this is just a try not to laugh challenge.”

“I know.” Sean sighed. Something just seemed off. “Let’s just keep going.”

The next video is a cat sneezing uncontrollably. And while it seems to try to stop itself by bring it’s paw up to its nose to stop itself from sneezing.

Finn slapped the pause button. “Let’s get a cat!”

“Dude no! We already have a rabbit and a ferret.” Sean said, rolling his eyes.

“But a cat would be so cute!” Finn putting his arm Sean and pouted. “Please! We can name it Socks or Waffles, or whatever you want!”

Sean rolled his eyes. “God! Let’s go!”

The whole experience felt like de ja vu. Filming the little bits as they go to the pet store. Filming as they enter the store together and look at the available kittens before settling on a grey cat with a stubby tail.

“Hey guys, we’re back,” Sean said with a sigh. “And we have Ash with us now.” He held up the kitten to the camera.

“The Try not to Laugh challenge has never been this cute.” Finn teased.

Sean looked at him, a fond smile on his face as he remembered saying something of the same when Finn broke his finger.

“Let’s keep going.” He said continuing to play the video.

With a few words here and there, they play off the fact that they don’t really say they are in a relationship and instead show off how much more affectionate they are to each other. After reviewing with Lyla and Finn, Sean chewed his lip.

“I’m...not sure.” He said crossing his arms. “We don’t really outright say we’re together. People will probably think you’re just high.”

Finn hummed to himself. “I do get touchy when I’m high.”

“We know.” Lyla and Sean said at the same time.

Jumping up out of his seat, Finn clapped his hand together. “Well sweetie, if this isn’t your style how about we do something new! Something sexy.”

“Finn. We can’t do anything that will get us demonetized, or worse, kicked off the channel.” Sean gave him a look.

“Sweetie, don’t worry your little head. This will not get us in trouble at all.” He smiled grabbing Sean’s shoulders before leaning forward and kissing him on the nose. “Just let me make a quick call.”

Sean couldn’t think of anything else to do so he just shrugged it off, kissing Finn again before the man walked off with his phone in hand.

“I think this video is cute.” Lyla pointed out turning back to the Try Not to Laugh Challenge. You even got a kitten out of it.”

“If this keeps up, we’re going to have a petting zoo at our place,” Sean said leaning back against his chair. “I don’t know, I just want to make sure the point gets across as clearly as possible.”

“Then just say it, dude!” Lyla chuckled, turning to look at him. “Make a vlog and just say it.”

“Yeah...I guess.” Sean said looking away.

Lyla moved to stay in his line of sight. “Dude, spill, why don’t you want to take the easy way out and just come out and say it.”

“I don’t know, I just want this to be different.” Sean sighed. “I did a video like that with Jenn and it was so awkward. Plus, Finn deserves more than a ‘hey guys we’re actually dating, bye’. I want to show that it’s real...not just say that it is.”

Lyla looked at him with a surprised look for a moment before crossing her arms and sitting back. “Wow, you said that even without blushing.”

With her pointing it out of course he was blush now. “Shut up.”

“Whatever you do, I’m sure the fans will appreciate it and love you for it.”

Sean stood up, having nothing really to say on the matter he shrugged and headed to the gaming room to wait for Finn to return. Hopefully whatever the older male had in mind would be a better idea.

*

“Dude, what the hell.”

“Alright, hear me out.” Finn said as he finished putting down the large pot filled several packets of ramen. 

“I told you mukbangs are nothing but trouble.” Sean said, rolling his eyes. “Mukbangs are filled with drama.”

“But this is a couple mukbang.” Finn said sliding over to Sean, putting his arm around him. “Not like that drama spillin’, hate-filled mukbang everyone used to. Just you and me, chowing down.”

Sean pulled out one of the packets. “Dude...you have like thirteen different flavors in this.”

“I know, I thought we would mix it up, see what it all tastes like in the end.”

Shaking his head Sean sighed. “I’ll boil the water.”

They got everything set up, waiting for the water to be boiled before actually getting started with filming.

“What up strays.” Sean said as Finn slid into camera view, Ash in his hand. “As you can see we aren’t playing a game and we have a cat. It’s been a busy week.” 

“Instead, sweetheart here has finally cracked and we’re doing a mukbang.” Finn said sounding all too excited. “A couple mukbang.” He leaned over and kissed Sean sweetly on the cheek before going in for another kiss and then another.

“Dude...” Sean could feel his face heat up, “ at least wait till the food is ready.”

They went through a quick discussion of what they were doing, mixing 13 flavors of ramen together from nuclear to...egg.

“Ew.” Sean looked at the packaging. “Have you had this flavor, it sounds gross.”

Finn just laughed, putting down Ash. “You think we gonna taste anything other than the hot stuff anyway?”

Well, he probably had a point. “Dude, can you even handle spice?”

Finn just waved him off as they began to dump the flavors into the water. “Should we be talking about us?” Finn asked.

“Oh...right.” Sean nodded looking at Finn. “Uh, how do you want to discuss it?”

Finn smiled before looking at the camera. “We’re fuckin’!”

“Finn!”

They continued to stir and dump, trying out different ways to come out. “Uh! Why is this so hard?” Sean asked with a sigh as he leaned back against the counter behind him.

“This is good,” Finn said trying out the broth they had created. “Here.”

He held out the spoon, coming over to Sean and holding it out the spoon. “You’re not worried at all? We’re not getting anywhere but wasting tape.”

He let Finn feed him. “Hey...that’s not bad.”

“Right!” Finn hurried back and Sean took a moment to look at the male. He always liked it when Finn had his hair up, something about the long longs being in the bun just made him look so hot. Finn looked back at him, “let’s add the noodles!”

They added the noodles carefully, trying to not get it to overflow. “This actually smells really good,” Sean said looking down at it. He picked up his chopsticks, pulling out some of the noodles blowing on it before holding it out to Finn.

Opening his mouth, Finn accepted it eagerly, slurping up the noodles. With the bright look on Finn’s face was all Sean needed to tell him it was good.

While he prepared his own chopstick full he noticed Finn pick up a fork. “Whoa, what are you doing?”

“About to dig in!” Finn said already twirling his fork.

“Dude, you can’t use a fork, you have to use chopsticks.”

Finn gave him an unimpressed look before shrugging. “Don’t know how sweetie.” 

Sean just laughed it off. “I’ll help you.”

Sean handed Finn chopsticks and held his hand over Finn’s and helped him hold the chopsticks correctly. Once Finn was able to grab his own good portion of noodles the male blew on it before holding it out for Sean to eat.

It did taste good, but Sean really couldn’t be bothered with the food anymore. The heat from the pot wasn’t really helping the heat crawling over his skin but Finn looked at him with a look. Once he had swallowed it he nodded. “It’s good.”

“Great.” Finn clarified before gathering more and holding it out for Sean. Once again he ate it but before he could begin to slurp it up Finn grabbed a few of the loose ends and brought them to his mouth. 

It was a little too much like Lady and the Tramp for something he would ever consider but he allowed himself to eat the ramen at Finn’s place before they met in a kiss.

It was more awkward then Sean imagined it, not really enjoying kissing with a mouthful but once he swallowed it and the food was replaced with Finn’s tongue he didn’t think about the food or the video, just Finn’s lips as they trailed from his lips to his neck and lower...and lower.

He forgot to shut off the camera.

*

Lyla paused the video before looking at Finn and Sean. “Well...that was...hot. Maybe you should consider putting it on PornHub instead-”

“Alright.” Sean cut her off while Finn shrugged.

“Okay...besides the obvious...can’t you just cut it out?” Finn asked rubbing his thumb against Sean’s knee. He was never aware that he was bobbing his leg nervously until Finn subtle brought it to his attention with a squeeze or a brush of his fingers. 

“Of course I can.” Lyla said. “I can cut it from before the Lady and the Tramp moment and beyond but the next time either of you come up from air you’ve burned the ramen. Unless you guys want to do that again-”

“No,” Sean mumbled shaking his head and sitting back. “Good idea but...let’s try something else.”

The thought of replicating that didn’t seem like it would end up anywhere other than R-rated again. Just thinking of Ramen already was getting him hot under the collar. Ramen would never be the same again for him.

“So, what’s next?” Finn asked holding two pens in his hand like chopsticks. 

“Okay, so maybe the mukbang turned out more bang than muk,” Lyla teased just to see Sean blush. “How about a couple baking challenge?” She offered.

Sean wasn’t sure how he felt about going back in the kitchen after what they had done in their kitchen.

Seriously he might never look at the kitchen ever again either.

“Like you guys cook something from the heart for each other and separately talk about how much you love each other. Super sappy, super cute, super clickbaity!”

“It really did sound sappy, but from Finn’s bright face he could see the male was into it. Did Finn have some sort of food kink that Sean didn’t know about?

“Fine. But separate kitchens.” Sean said, looking at Finn. “You do it at our place, Lyla can I do it at yours?”

“Of course,” Lyla rolled her eyes. “Any mess you make you better clean up.”

“I will, I will.” Sean rolled his eyes.

“We’ll do it tomorrow,” Finn said before standing up. “You mind painting my nails babe? I need to get them retouched before we start doing hand shots while baking.”

“Dude, you need to learn to do this yourself.” Sean pointed out as he stood up and followed him to the table.

“It’s easier when you do it,” Finn whined, putting his arm around Sean’s shoulder.

“Yeah, whatever.”

*

“Hey Strays, what’s up?” Sean asked with a sigh. He had done the intro four times already and it still didn’t seem to get any better. “As you can see I’m alone and not in the gaming studio, but I’m in Lyla’s house, more specifically in her kitchen. And today, I’m going to be baking Finn cupcakes. Why you may be asking...well it’s uh..it’s because I...uh I love him.”

He looked off at the moment, the tension in his shoulders easing. It wasn’t the first time he had said it on camera these past two days but something about Finn not being around made it a little easier.

“We’re dating,” Sean said as he began to put the ingredients together. “Have been since late June...sorry for not telling you but a few things happened and...yeah.”

He didn’t want to get into Mark Jefferson or VidCon, and found himself rambling instead, talking about why he picked cupcakes for Finn.

“Cupcakes are fun, unique and just the right size.” Sean flushed a little. That sounded...dirty somehow. He cleared his throat. “S-So, I’m going to make Funfetti cupcakes with buttercream frosting.”

He clapped his hands together. “Let’s get started.”

He did his best, is what he could say, he had a vision that he had in his mind, a simple Funfettie cupcake with the icing on top dyed green (for the herb Finn loved so much). He was sure most of the footage was probably just him trying to follow the directions as much as possible.

“Why am I making homemade frosting?” Sean asked himself as he looked at the mixture before him before mumbling, “because Finn deserves homemade frosting.”

It took longer than he expected, mostly trying to get the frosting to look good on the cupcakes. Adding a few sprinkles he stepped back and looked at his work. “I think I rocked it guys? So, next time I see you we’ll be with Finn trying out his food, peace.”

He saluted them before shutting off the camera.

He sent his filming to Lyla at the office before texting Finn he was on his way. Carefully putting his cupcakes up in a container, cleaning up he left behind before heading out to meet Finn.

*

“Dude you made these?!” Sean blinked looking at the tray of brownies. They looked amazing, cut in small squares all piled up on a table looking almost fresh out the oven.

“Yeah, took me a while,” Finn said looking down at them. Sean picked one up, looking at the square. “Yeah I-” 

“They look amazing,” Sean said before popping the square in his mouth. Finn looked as if he wanted to say something.

Getting a few chews in, Sean was surprised by how moist and gooey it was. “F-Finn...this is amazing.”

He finished up the small square before reaching for another. “I didn’t know you were such a baking mastermind.”

“Well, these brownies are my specialty,” Finn said as he licked off the icing on the cupcake. He gave the camera a look before turning it off.

Sean blinked. “What are you doing?”

“Okay...so before you eat the whole plate. They are special brownies...’ special’.”

Sean stopped mid-chew. “They’re what?”

“Weed brownies.”

“Finn-”

“I know, I should have told you before you ate them, but you were really ready to dig in, I didn’t get the chance.”

“Dude-”

He was cut off again when his phone rang. With a sigh, he picked it up, Lyla’s name flashing on the screen. “Lyla, what’s wrong?” He asked as soon as he answered.

“Come to the office as soon as you can,” Lyla said on the other line. “It’s urgent.”

It had to be, she never called.

“Okay, we’ll be there.” He hung up before looking at Finn who gave him puppy dog eyes. “It takes hours to kick in, I’m sorry babe, just wanted to, relax you a little. All this filmin’ got you stressin’ like mad.”

Sean stopped tapping his foot. “Dude, I don’t need to explain to you why drugging me isn’t cool.” He stood up and Finn followed.

“I know, I’m sorry. I was honestly going to tell you before you ate it.”

To ease his tension, Sean kissed him on the cheek. “I know...just do it sooner, okay. Come on, Lyla needs to see us, you drive.”

*

Lyla turned around in her chair. “So...we have a problem.”

“Besides the fact Finn made weed brownies?” Sean asked, rolling his eyes.

Finn gave him puppy dog eyes again and Sean shook his heads, knocking into him. They had brought the rest to the office, with it clearly labeled as weed brownies for anyone who wanted one. Lyla was already eating hers.

“Well, as long as it’s not shown, we can probably get away with it. But, Sean your file was corrupted.”

“A-Are you serious?” Sean asked before sighing. This was getting exhausting. “You can’t save it at all?”

“Nope,” Lyla said a little too cheerfully. “You have to re-upload it...or...”

“Or...?”

“Okay so after watching Finn’s I realized it was a little sappy. Too sappy for you two. We’re trying new things so I had another idea. Doing something simple like a couple quiz. You guys pretend that you’re just trying out the quiz to see if you guys are really compatible. It’ll be cute.”

“How is that not sappy?”

“Just do it,” Lyla waved him off.

Sean wanted to argue, but the thing about edibles...when they kick in, they kick in, and you can never tell when they are going to kick in.

So of course fate would have it now that they kick in. It’s like a flip is switched and his vision is 10x better than it had been before.

By the way, Finn smiles at him, he can see tell that it has hit Sean right where it’s supposed too. “You wanna do it?”

“Uh...yeah...” Sean nodded feeling a little dazed. “We can uh...we can do that.” 

Finn laughed at him, running his hand through Sean’s hair. “We’ll do it after you come down.”

“Yeah...That’s probably a good idea.”

“Cupcake?” Finn asked holding out one of Sean’s cupcakes.

Sean smiled back at him taking one off the tray.

*

They watched End Games while Sean came down and it was better than he could imagine it to be high off his ass.

The others joined them once their own edibles kicked in, watching the cinema masterpiece play out.

It took Sean a while to actually come down but when he finally did they still had time to start making the video.

“I actually hate BuzzFeed.” Sean mumbled scrolling through the website.

“Wait!” Finn put his hand on Sean’s, stopping him from scrolling anymore. “This!”

“What Typical White Girl Tattoo are You?” Sean read out before sighing. “Dude this website is so fucking stu-”

“No, couple picks each other's tattoos.” Finn said, looking at Sean with bright eyes.

“You want to get a tattoo?” Sean asked.

“Now that’s more us! Not some stupid quiz. This babe is all us. You always sayin’ you wanted one. Let me pick out somethin’ real nice sweetie, and you can pick somethin’ for me.”

Sean would admit, it was more...them and he let out a soft sigh. “Yeah, I trust you.”

“That’s what I love to hear sweetie.” Finn put his arms around him, kissing Sean on the lips before hugging him. “I’ll call Chloe!”

*

Chloe the tattoo YouTuber had a sleeve of tattoos on her arm and her own collection in the Inkbox. So did Finn and Cass and like hers, they all had their own unique style. Finn’s tattoos ranged from nonsense like Space Turd to tattoos with hidden meaning like the symbol for North on his hand. Cass’s tattoo had color, beauty against her skin bringing out the beauty within her. Chloe was best known for her whole arm tattoo, full of beauty and death.

If anyone was going to do his tattoo it was going to be her.

“Couple tattoos? That’s cute.” Chloe’s girlfriend, Rachel said to Sean while Finn and Chloe messed around in the back, probably going over what they were going to tattoo on Sean. “When did you two start dating?”

“Mid June.” Sean looked down at some of the work at the front counter, thinking over what to tattoo on Finn.

“That’s really cute. And awesome.” Rachel pushed some of her hair behind her shoulder. “I think it’ll be really cool for queer YouTubers to be in your genre.”

Blinking out of his musing, Sean looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Well...I’m not much into gaming, but it’s never advertised for queer folks. And though there are queer YouTubers it always seems to be the same category they fall under. It’ll be great for you and Finn to be in a YouTube category that’s typically for hetero males.”

Sean had never thought about it before. He knew his sexuality, never thought about how it would be displayed out into the world and how his audience would take it. “Yeah...I guess...”

“Sean,” Chloe called him back. Finn came out with a smile plastered on his face. He kissed Sean while they walked past each other.

He headed back to Chloe who was pulling out a new sheet. “Okay, wanna do you have planned for that ball of sap up there.”

“Just...something simple.” He rubbed the back of his head before explaining his idea to her. Really, he was sure they would expect more from him, being an artist but something about it just fit well with Finn.

“It’s just a no-smoking sign,” Sean said. “But under it in graffiti I want it to say Without Me.”

“Oh yeah, that’s totally Finn,” Chloe said laughing before drawing it out. With a few tweaking, Sean got it to where he thought it would look great. “And where do you want this?”

“On his right side, his rib cage.”

“Alright, let’s get started,” Chloe said nodding her head.

*

“What up Strays!” Finn and Sean said together. 

“As you can see we’re not on our couch. We’re getting tattoos.” Sean said.

Finn put his arm around Sean’s neck, pulling him close. “More specifically, we’re picking each other tattoos.”

“Because...we’re a couple.” Sean settled on saying. It felt awkward in his mouth and he shook his head. “We’re going to have to do this later.”

Finn just laughed. “Ready to get tatted up?”

“Does it hurt?” Sean asked.

“Nothin’ wrong with a little pain sweetie, you should know that.” He bumped his hip against Sean who elbowed him in the stomach.

“So, who’s going first?” Chloe asked.

“Me,” Finn said coming over to sit in the chair. “Let me show you it ain’t that bad sweetie.”

“Alright, take off your shirt, and put on this blindfold.” 

“Ooh, kinky.” Finn chuckled, chucking off his shirt while Rachel put on a blindfold. “Watch carefully, I’ll show you it ain’t but a thang!”

Sean nodded crossing his arms as he watched and processed to laugh along with Rachel as Finn as he groaned and whined while Rachel filmed.

“What happened to all that bravery?” Chloe asked, rolling her eyes.

“Fuck...it hurts.”

“It is right on the bone.” Rachel pointed out.

“Besides, you’re probably always drunk when you get a tattoo,” Chloe commented.

“Not true!” Finn argued before gritting his teeth. “Babe...h-hold my hand.”

Sean couldn’t help but laugh but held his hand.

It didn’t take too long for Chloe to finish up Finn’s tattoo and before long she was cleaning up and putting the finishing touches on it. “Alright, have a look.”

Sean made sure to adjust the camera to get Finn’s view in the reflection as he pulled off the blindfold and gave it a look.

His blue eyes widen for a moment before he turned to Sean. “Babe...it’s fucking awesome.”

“You...like it?”

“I fuckin’ love it!” Finn threw his hands up and looking at it. “Shit babe, you gotta pick out the rest of my tattoos for the rest of my life.”

“You ready, Sean?” Chloe asked as she got ready for him.

“As ready as I will ever be.”

He took his seat, Chloe giving him a blindfold before adjusting the inside of his arm.

It did hurt but not as bad as he thought. Finn was there to hold his hand anyway talking to him sweetly.

“Sweetheart, you are going to look so sexy with a tattoo.”

He tried to figure out what was being drawn on him but he couldn’t put it together in his mind. “Dude, I swear if you drew a penis on me I’m going to kill you.”

“Nah, sweetie, I would never put a dick on you...well unless it’s mine-”

“Ew, dude shut up!” Chloe snapped.

Sean honestly believed that. From the way it was feeling, it felt like it was taking up a large portion of his inner forearm.

Just as it was beginning to get a little bit more uncomfortable than Sean would like it was finally done.

“Alright, ready to see it,” Chloe said cleaning it off as Sean sat up. 

“Yeah.”

Just as the words left his mouth, Finn was pulling off his blindfold. He blinked to get his eyes adjusted to the light before looking down at his arm to see his new tattoo.

It was two wolves, one just a pup, the other full-grown. Just their outline as they were captured in motion running.

“It’s like you and Daniel,” Finn said sounding a little uncertain of himself with Sean’s silence. “You like it?”

“I uh...I love it.” Sean said looking down at it. “I really love it dude.”

He looked at Finn, a smile on his lips before he grabbed him by the back of the neck and kissed him.

“Jeez, lovebirds!”

Rachel laughed. “You two are really cute.”

*

“I have a better idea,” Lyla said, looking at them.

“What’s wrong with the couple tattoos?” Sean had to ask.

Blowing a raspberry, she waved him off. “That’s more of an after you’ve come out video.” She said, “the first thing you do together as a couple then just friends.”

Even Finn seems to be getting tired of this and he looked at Sean for guidance. “This is the last video,” Sean said, shaking his head.

Lyla nodded. “Yes. This will be the last video. Trust me.”

Lyla lead them to the conference table, getting them to sit across from each other. “Setting up the camera she smiled at Sean before holding out large headphones. “Sean, put these on.”

“What are those?” Sean asked, looking at them.

Lyla laughed, “just put them on loser and wait.”

Rolling his eyes, he slipped them on. She took a moment to put on a song and Sean’s senses were overloaded by the music, it drowned out whatever she was saying. “Why is it so loud?” He asked probably too loud himself.

Finn laughs went unheard before Lyla pressed record and looked at Finn saying something. Finn looked at her for a moment before smiling and shrugging. He started to speak and Sean watched. 

He had never noticed how animated Finn was as he spoke. His hands moved and he laughed and smiled, whatever he was talking about he seemed to really be into. Lyla continued to ask him questions and Finn answered with little to no thought it seemed, knowing exactly what he wanted to say as soon as the question was asked.

It had to be nice to be so confident in everything.

After a while Lyla gave him a thumbs up before Sean took off the headphones. “Okay, your turn Sean.” 

He handed the headphones over to Finn. Once they were on Lyla looked at him. “What was your first impression of Finn?”

Sean blinked for a moment. “My first impression...” He rubbed the back of his neck before shrugging. “I thought he was...cool. Cooler than me that’s for sure. When we found out that Jenn had cheated on me with him, it just...made so much sense. He’s so...cool.”

Lyla was giving him a shit-eating grin and he glared at her, his face heating up. “Shut up!”

“I’m not saying anything.” She chuckled before asking the next question. “What if you never met?”

What if he never met Finn? Sean had never thought about it...never wanted to think about it. “I...I can’t even imagine it. Can’t imagine Finn not in my life even if he wasn’t my boyfriend or...whatever he is. If we never left, I probably go back to Settle, do something with art, probably become an art teacher or something boring like that. Finn makes me...brave. Trying new things, things I would never have thought about doing myself.”

“When did you know you were in love?”

“It’s uh...it’s stupid,” Sean said, shaking his head. “But I think it’s true. It was after we confronted Jenn. You know, after I decided that I didn’t want to do it and he came out to talk to me. He was so...sincere. So sweet and nice. He was just as hurt as I was about it all but pushed his feelings aside for me. He didn’t even know me but still did that and it meant a lot to me. It still means a lot to me.”

Finn was smile at him, had been through all of Sean’s questions and he couldn’t help but wonder if he looked as love-struck as Finn did when he had been looking at the answer the questions.

Lyla gave Finn a thumbs up, and he removed the headphones. “Just one more question, for both of you.” She said looking between them. “If you could do anything over again, maybe start dating sooner, or anything like that would you?”

Sean looked at Finn who stared back at him. “Nah,” Finn said smiling at Sean. “Everything happened at the speed it’s ‘pose too. Slow and steady.”

Sean blushed under his gaze and nodded. “Yeah...no regrets.”

*

Lyla promised she would edit the footage and have it uploaded by tomorrow morning, in the meanwhile, Sean and Finn headed home.

They smoked and made out on their couch. Played a little with Ash, Jax, and Squirmy before heading to bed.

The lovemaking that followed was slow and gentle. Roaming hands and lips dragging moans out of each other as they moved against each other enjoying their time together, rolling hips and shuddering against each other. The room was filled with Sean’s ‘embarrassing’ moans while Finn whispered sweet things into his ear while he rolled his hips against Sean.

It ended as great as it always did, with Sean letting out a sound only Finn was able to drag out, with Finn following close behind.

They stayed connected for a while after, enjoying being close. He must have been more tired than he thought as he fell asleep in Finn’s arms, only vaguely aware of Finn cleaning them before joining him once again to sleep.

He woke up much earlier than he ever thought he would. Finn was usually the early bird in their relationship, at least earlier than Sean. He was ready to put it off on anticipation, wanting to see the video.

He slipped out of Finn’s arms, picking up his phone from the table and opening up Youtube and going to their channel, ready to watch the video.

The video...was not what Sean had been expecting. Instead of the questions he had answered for Lyla it’s something different.

‘What was your first impression of Sean? Of Finn?’

Lyla’s voice starts off the video in a blank screen before Cassidy begins to sing a slowed-down version of Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop while Finn spoke first, the screen cutting to him sitting in front of Sean with a smile on his face.

“Shit...I thought he was...so fuckin’ sweet.”

The video cuts again to their first attempt at telling the fan. Their Try Not to Laugh Challenge but only a few clips. The video Sean had taken of them getting a kitten. It was the part he had handed the camera to Finn so he could pick up the kitten they had gotten. Ash so small in his hands as he held it up to his face. Finn had zoomed in as their noses touched.

“Honest with his feelin’s and shy, so fuckin’ shy. Sensitive in the best fuckin' way.”

The video cut again, to their drive home where Finn had filmed Sean singing, Cassidy guitar playing lowly so you could hear Sean singing Flip of a Coin to their kitten before Finn cut the music and Sean was left singing off-key on his own. It had been embarrassing, as he hadn’t known how loud he was singing until Finn had cut the music and he covered his eyes while Finn laughed.

He couldn’t help it, he looked down at the comments just to see the reaction.

{Dani: Wow, I can’t wait for more!}

{Lunarhero: !! oh man, I’m already in love with you two}

{AFairy: This is actually adorable}

He came back up when his voice cut in. “I thought he was...cool. Cooler than me that’s for sure.”

Looking back at the video it was now their second attempt: the mukbang. Finn sliding into view of the camera while Sean greeted the fans. The clip was followed by Finn holding out the spoon for Sean to taste, a teasing smile on his lips. 

“When we found out that Jenn had cheated on me with him, it just...made so much sense. He’s so...cool.” His voice accompanied the next clip, of when he was teaching Finn how to use chopsticks only for it to flicker between a secretly recorded video of Finn eating Chinese food with Cass and Hannah and he was using chopsticks just fine. In the background Sean could see himself being cornered by Mark Jefferson giving him a clear idea when this had been taken.

{Dani: Wow, finally. I can’t wait for more!}

{Lunarhero: !! oh man, I’m already in love with you two}

{AFairy: This is actually adorable}

“What if you never met?” Lyla’s voice asked as the next video came up of them baking. The screen split between Finn and Sean.

“Shit...probably be in jail. Or in fuckin’ trouble for some dumbass shit I ain’t have business bein’ involved in.” Finn’s voice cut in before the video of him came into sound.

“What up strays! Today we’re bakin’ some sweets for my sweetie!” Finn said clapping his hand and doing finger guns at the camera. A look crossed his face before he shook his head and tried again. “Sup Strays! We doin’ somethin’ different. Fuckin’ bakin’ brownies for my...brown...stupid.” 

Sean had thought he had done bad, and was quickly reminded as it cut to his audio and the all the fumbles he made in trying to do the intro before he sighed it came to the last intro he had made.

“-Why you may be asking...well it’s uh..it’s because I...uh I love him.” Sean said at the exact moment Finn spoke.

“We doin’ somethin’ new because...shit I lied to you. I love ‘im.” Finn said in the video.

{seoulcitybatman: dmmddjxksksjsj i love them!!!!!!}

{galacticleah: So f--ing cute!}

{catersick: I’m really excited for you two! I can’t wait to see where it goes from here}

Even hearing his own voice answer Lyla’s question couldn’t pull him away from the comment section. He had gotten better at ignoring the bad and finding the good but the positivity they were receiving made him feel warm.

{Eilla: Can’t wait to see where you two go from here!}

{Arsonistka: You guys really caught my attention, so I would love to watch more of your videos as soon as they are ready}

{Tierrayaoi: They’re literally too cute. I love this}

{iamstupid: this!!! Hhhh}

He came back up to the video when he heard Lyla speak. “When did you know you were in love?”

The video changed to another secret filming of Sean painting Finn’s nails for him while Finn laughed over it.

“Shit baby girl, I always liked him. Like really liked him. So fucki’ cute when he hovered around you when you and I had business. He always looked like he wanted to come closer but was...afraid or somethin’.”

The video changed again to one of their filming Self-Care Sunday but was focused on Sean and Finn in the background. It was one of those late nights filming sessions and Sean had been dead tired. He was leaning against Finn asleep with Finn running his hands through his hair.

“I knew I loved him durin’ the try not to laugh challenge. Fuckin’ breakin’ my finger on the ceillin’ fan. That shit is a crazy-ass thin’ to do, but shit he went for it just with me. That’s some ride or die shit, you don’t let that go. And I love that shit...”

The video shifted between more candid shots of the two of them being sweet together. The soft looks, the playful behavior from what they usually cut out between each episode, Sean didn’t know there was so much footage of the two.

{Penstills: This is so cute!}

{DaniDani333: OMG!!!!}

{blakel: okay, so I usually don’t comment on any video, but this is the first time, in months, where I’ve seen something so pure and cute}

“Just one more question, for both of you.” Lyla’s voice cutting in. “If you could do anything over again, maybe start dating sooner, or anything like that would you?”

The video flickered between their tattoo video, the intro was one of the ones they had done after they had already gotten it, all smiles and laughs. “Today we’re picking each other’s tattoo!” Finn said with a smile while Sean laughed. “Sweetie, gonna look sexy as hell tatted up.” He put his arm around Sean and pulled him close, kissing him on camera. It then cut to both Sean and Finn’s reaction to getting their tattoos.

They came back to actually just the two of them sitting at the table together, Lyla off-camera but the two of them looking at each other.

“Nah,” Finn said smiling at Sean. “Everything happened at the speed it’s ‘pose too. Slow and steady.”

Sean blushed under his gaze and nodded. “Yeah...no regrets.”

The final few shots were just the two of them kissing, which they had tried to do at the end of all five videos they had done together. The shot included the Lady and Tramp kiss they had done.

{Annie: I squealed at their kiss!}

{Iwantcoffee: dude, I don’t even watch gaming channels and i am i n v e s t e d in your love}

{JJ_Dyl: wait, I love this so much}

{La mouille: Hello, I really appreciate your videos. Was unsure at first but was like : why not? But now I watch it every day and I am really excited to watch more from you two.}

“What’s the verdict?”

Sean shut off YouTube, looking back at Finn who sat up in his spot, his hair a mess as he yawned and stretched. 

Sean put his phone back on the table before rolling over and slipping into Finn’s arms. “Doesn’t matter,” Sean said with a shrug.

Finn let out a soft chuckle but didn’t argue, putting his arm around Sean as they settled back to go back to sleep. He was sure Finn would really enjoy knowing they had finally made it to the Trending page, number 1 even! But for now, he just wanted to enjoy the moment. Just the two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you don't mind me tweaking some of your comments to fit, but I tried to keep them as close to what you put as possible to make them fit in a YouTube comment.
> 
> The Game Den is kind of base off of Game Grumps and Markiplier if you were ever wondering. The Game Grumps structure mostly but Markiplier's growth. He really blew up quickly but the Game Grumps is more of a company, or it seems that way to me since they talk often about interns and building space, and they have two games they made themselves. 
> 
> I appreciate you all! Really did not think this fic would do as well as it had. I had been in a writing slump for a while but I had written the first two chapters before I decided to actually post it. The rest of the story kind of just came to me as the love came from your comments.
> 
> I love you all. Happy Valentines Day!


End file.
